Chapter 718: Chapter 404, The Tall Pirate Crew
The United Forces of the Dragonhawk Star Domain achieved their war goals, but it didn’t mean the war was over.
Wars can be started at will, yet they cannot be ended so casually.
Would the Green Skins just accept their loss and give up?
In the Water Fog Star and Silver Pass 2 Star Systems, the war continued. The Green Skins had launched fierce attacks for two years, trying to recapture these two planets and then target Silver Pass 3 and White Fog Star behind them.
The human military gritted their teeth and held out for two years, finally driving the Green Skins back.
To this day, there are still sporadic small-scale wars going on. The large-scale battles have ended, otherwise, the Tianma Fleet wouldn’t have been able to return.
…
According to the plan, the Tianma Fleet would return and rest for at least five years. The crew needed rest, and at the same time, the ships also needed repairs.
The departing Tianma Fleet, led by five cruisers, comprised over a hundred warships. After six years of war, one cruiser was destroyed, and the losses of other types of ships exceeded twenty. The rest could only undergo field repairs and were overall quite worn out.
It was estimated that after returning, it might take more than five years to repair all the ships. By then, the shipyards on Flying Wing Star would likely have to cut production, and many docks would have to be emptied, exclusively for ship repairs. Just the cost of repairs would probably break two hundred billion.
The related orders had already been sent.
Of course, the bill for the ship repairs would be footed by the Military Affairs Department and the Imperial Navy, with the amount being set off against taxes, twenty billion a year.
In terms of revenue, that wasn’t too bad. At least a few docks were emptied out so other ships could be built.
Gu Hang and Yelisia had communicated several times during this period and planned to marry upon his return.
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As for whether the war would continue thereafter and the two would have to face separation again within a few years, it sadly seemed unavoidable. Even for people of Gu Hang and Yelisia’s status, they often had no control over their fate — perhaps even less control.
But at least they could enjoy a few years of peace, Gu Hang had to tell himself that much.
Calculating the time, Yelisia should have already set off.
Returning, she would have to pass through twelve Star Realm Tunnels. Generally speaking, the one-way journey from one star system to another takes about five to eight days at the speed of an average fleet. Among those, the time spent traversing the Star Realm Tunnels isn’t long, typically just a day. The main part of the journey is the vast emptiness between the starport and the jump point, which requires the ships to travel for a long time.
However, this issue can be substantially overcome during long-distance travel. If the starship keeps accelerating without stopping, flying from one jump point to the next without slowing down, and initiating the jump upon arrival before accelerating again to the next jump point, the fleet’s speed will keep increasing.
Since the physical speed of space travel does not affect the time it takes to jump, these twelve Star Realm Tunnel transits would indeed take about ten days and cannot be reduced, but the time for interstellar travel in space can be compressed to around twenty-five days. The entire voyage would be just over a month.
That is to say, in just over a month, Gu Hang would be able to see his fiancée.
It all felt so unfamiliar.
Originally, in order to solve the issue of political marriage, Gu Hang worked hard to close the gap between them before Yelisia left. Now, after a six-year separation, it’s hard to say how much of that painstakingly fostered affection remained.
But no matter, this marriage had to proceed regardless of the state of their emotional foundation.
…
While the welcoming ceremony was being arranged on Flying Wing Star, a military operation currently being executed by the alliance also reached a conclusion.
After the internal trade routes of the Tianma Star Sector became busy, they attracted pirates.
Pirates are a nuisance; they appear and vanish unpredictably within the Star Sea. They might not cause any major incidents, but their constant harassment, hijacking a small ship one day, and playing cat and mouse with the navy the next, is extremely annoying.
Aside from those formidable Pirate Alliances not easily eradicated, typical Pirate Groups are nothing but trash in front of imperial authorities; as long as their lair can be located, snuffing them out is simple.
But the issue is, one has to find the lair.
Where the pirates’ base is, where their ships come from, where they recruit their hands… for the officials, these are all mysteries.
And once this information is in their grasp, it’s usually the moment when the pirate organization is doomed to be wiped out.
The Pirate Group that haunts the Tianma Star Sector is named the ‘Red Eye Pirate Group’; it has been causing chaos for over a year now.
The damage they’ve caused is neither significant nor insignificant.
It’s not significant because it doesn’t seriously harm the alliance.
And it’s not insignificant because losing even a small passenger ship like the ones used by travelers can cost several million in Tax Currency.
Not to mention an incident where a ship departing from Korolya, carrying over eight hundred young students delegated by the local government of Korolya heading to Flying Wing Star to study and change their fates, resulted in all of them being captured.
This was undoubtedly an open provocation to the alliance.
Gu Hang could not tolerate such an incident in his own Star Sector.
The pirates conveyed their ransom demands through secret channels to Gu Hang, asking for an outrageous sum. But they underestimated both Gu Hang’s resolve and the power of the alliance; regardless of how much the pirates wanted, even if it was a mere dime, Gu Hang had never planned to pay.
He knew that to give in would set a precedent; tasting success, the pirates would become even more unbridled. If word got out that the alliance was weak and easy to bully, and big money could be made in the Tianma Star Sector, then it was likely that not just one ‘Red Eye Pirate Group’ would come knocking for a windfall, but perhaps a myriad of colorful-eyed brigands as well.