The First Mate didn’t notice his odd reaction. “Don’t worry—it won’t affect the Main Ship.”
But if it was just landing, why battle?
Xie Jianxun was momentarily confused.
In his memory, Huo Jing was the City Lord of some city-state, now heading back on this ship.
But now they were making a detour to land on a planet that didn’t seem to be his territory…
Battle—that meant starting a war, right?
Xie Jianxun jolted in shock. Were they seizing another planet?!
All planet-managing City Lords were appointed personally by the local overlord—for hiring or firing—which changed a planet’s ownership.
Only lawless fringe planets could be taken by force.
That meant…
Xie Jianxun watched as the First Mate went to the wall and kindly set it to sleep mode before leaving the cabin.
In the instant before the door closed, Xie Jianxun thought he saw him give a faint smile.
Now the room held only him.
Xie Jianxun slowly exhaled, a suspicion forming in his mind.
At 5:30 a.m., the Siphon Whale blared its first ship-wide broadcast, ordering all on-duty personnel to assemble in the hall on time, support staff to stand by.
People yawned as they filed out of their cabins.
They looked lax, but their postures were tense, adjusting weapons—they knew what this “duty” entailed.
At that moment, a cabin door opened, and the person inside silently joined the crowd.
Assembly in the hall complete—no roll call, no headcount.
This mysterious crew joked and laughed, not taking the mission seriously at all.
Xie Jianxun had thought he could just tag along and gradually uncover the truth. Instead, he watched them pair up at the launch bay, claiming their Fighter Crafts one by one and stepping in.
He stood to the side of the launch bay, dumbfounded.
Where was his Fighter Craft?!
“Mr. Xie?”
An unfamiliar voice came from behind. He turned quickly to see the First Mate.
The young First Mate with gray eyes looked at him, puzzled, tugging at his glove.
He asked, “It’s only six. Why are you up already?”
Xie Jianxun fumbled for words, stammering a bit.
He pointed at the crowd loading Fighter Crafts and said guiltily, “I woke up early, heard the noise, and thought I’d check out the excitement.”
The First Mate nodded. “Looking for the boss?”
Xie Jianxun sucked in a breath and waved his hands. “No, no, I’ll just watch… Do you know where Huo Jing is now?”
First Mate: “Boss is in the Main Ship’s control room.”
Xie Jianxun sighed in relief. As long as he wasn’t nearby.
Subconsciously, he felt that if Huo Jing saw him witnessing the real deal, the pirate would reveal his true colors—and who knew what he’d do then.
With launch time approaching, Xie Jianxun deflated. “Go ahead with your duties. I’ll just look around.” He turned to leave.
“Want to come?”
The First Mate said abruptly, his eyes glinting faintly.
Xie Jianxun froze, then followed him quickly without thinking. “…You mean?”
The First Mate walked up to one of the Fighter Crafts and opened the hatch. He turned back to Xie Jianxun and said, “I don’t need to fight on the front lines. If you stick with me, I can guarantee your safety.”
There was such a good deal!
Xie Jianxun’s eyes lit up. He thanked him profusely and mimicked his movements to climb into the Fighter Craft.
He buckled up his safety harness, promising not to touch anything or get in the way of the First Mate’s duties.
At exactly six o’clock, the launch bay opened. All the Fighter Crafts entered the trajectory and filed out from the belly of the Main Ship.
After a series of fine vibrations, Xie Jianxun felt his body lighten, though the safety harness kept him firmly in place.
Without it, he figured he would have floated up and spun around, disoriented in every direction.
The First Mate said in a low voice, “Please hold on tight!”
Xie Jianxun instinctively gripped the handrail.
But it was obvious that grabbing it only provided psychological comfort. The real security came from the complex and sturdy safety harness around his body.
There was no roar, but the vibrations beneath him intensified. The entire Fighter Craft streaked forth like a beam of light, chasing after the tail of the main fleet as they headed toward a distant planet.
Countless Fighter Crafts hovered into position, surrounding the pale green planet.
The enemy realized they meant business and hurriedly activated their defense systems, pulling a web-like light net across the planet’s surface.
“Defenses like this were phased out by the Federation a decade ago. Clearing them won’t take more than a few minutes,” the First Mate said calmly.
He truly wasn’t frontline combat personnel. He just needed to observe from the rear, gather intelligence, and relay it back to the Main Ship.
When he pressed a button, Xie Jianxun’s vision blurred.
The complex control panel vanished, and their surroundings turned transparent and clear, as if a high-definition screen encircled them completely.
Distances invisible to the human eye were supplemented by electronic feeds.
Now Xie Jianxun could clearly see how the Fighter Crafts launched their attacks, swiftly tore through the light net, and brazenly dove down for landing.
The First Mate reached out and zoomed in further.
Xie Jianxun could even see an Energy Cannon striking the tower of the City Lord’s Mansion in a major city, demonstratively blasting it to fragments.
Xie Jianxun’s breath hitched.
A whole planet, with defenses as flimsy as paper, was torn apart by the invaders in under an hour.
Their own Fighter Craft advanced slowly, eventually hovering near the atmosphere, watching from a safe distance.
The guest sitting quietly in the co-pilot seat fell silent for a moment before asking, “Why are we clearing this place? The planet looks perfectly normal.”
The First Mate turned his head, glanced at him, and indifferently looked away.
“We don’t target civilian planets under Federation jurisdiction. This one looks normal, but it’s already been infiltrated by the ‘Red Scorpion Tail.’ Now we’re waiting for another wave to see if any newcomers want to surrender.”
Xie Jianxun’s Light Brain vibrated lightly.
At first, he didn’t understand why, until he suddenly remembered that after auto-connecting to the network, some app pop-ups sent vibrations.
He glanced at the First Mate.
The First Mate’s hands had left the control panel. He had opened his own Light Brain and was inputting something on the light screen—likely relaying frontline reports to the Main Ship via secure channels.
Xie Jianxun casually pulled out his Light Brain, pretending to check the ad pop-ups from those apps.
Then he opened the Star Net and typed in “Red Scorpion Tail.”
The search results brought up an entry: Red Scorpion Tail, a pirate gang that once roamed the southern border fringes, frequently raiding Federation planets and airline vessels.
After heavy Federation crackdowns, they vanished, leaving scant remnants—likely reorganized elsewhere.
According to the First Mate, this seemingly normal planet had already been taken over by the Red Scorpion Tail pirates, turned into a reserve energy source for their expansion.
Now, they were sweeping out the Red Scorpion Tail members and taking over the planet themselves.
Xie Jianxun thought of something and turned to gaze at the Main Ship’s silhouette, outlined by the starlight and bathed in silvery glow.
Its long fins hung down, launch bays widening like enormous gaping maws. It resembled a whale that siphoned all things…
The First Mate closed his Light Brain and turned to see him staring blankly at the Main Ship.
Xie Jianxun said softly, “Our Main Ship looks like a whale.”
The First Mate nodded indifferently. “Yes, the boss named it the ‘Siphon Whale’ for that reason.”
The mission concluded successfully. Some personnel returned to the ship, including the First Mate and Xie Jianxun.
Back on the Main Ship, before the First Mate could ask if he wanted breakfast delivered to his cabin, he saw the handsome guest dash into the crowd and vanish.
When Huo Jing learned of the situation, he raised an eyebrow.
He set aside his operations report and went to knock on the cabin door.
But the airlock door refused to open.
He had override access for the entire ship but didn’t want to force open the door that the young master had personally sealed.
Instead, he leaned casually against the airlock and spoke through the seam.
“Young master, why are you upset?” The pirate leader frowned, temporarily unable to pinpoint the reason.
Had the First Mate taken him out on a mission and something gone wrong?
“Speaking of which, my First Mate taking you out without permission means he needs to be punished…”
Before he finished, the airlock door slid open abruptly.
Huo Jing straightened up, about to flash a triumphant smile, when he saw the young master looking at him silently.
“It was my choice to go out. It has nothing to do with him,” Xie Jianxun said in a low voice, his energy for speaking already drained. “You never told me that you’re a…”
Huo Jing: “What?”
Xie Jianxun finished: “Pirate.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the nearby pirates who were still passing by turned their gazes toward them. Huo Jing paused for a moment, then quickly pushed him back into the cabin, blocking all other lines of sight as the airlock door slowly closed.
