Chapter 971: Chapter 837: I’m Here
Qu Jianlei acknowledged the Paranoid and Flower Scorpion’s judgment: Sanhe Company’s unusual behavior suggests it’s unlikely to be a trap.
As for being 100% sure it’s not a trap? Come on, there’s never an absolute certainty in this world.
Anyway, Sanhe Company’s forced alignment issue has already caused serious consequences, being the first to be retaliated against is quite normal.
Thanks to someone providing accurate information, 8384 warship lifted off again after landing for just an hour.
It wasn’t just them at the market; as the shabby starship departed, someone quietly picked up a communication device.
Qu Jianlei could foresee what would happen after he left but was powerless to stop it.
He can’t exactly control everyone in the market, that would truly be madness.
Hence, the upcoming retaliation action is sure to be noticed by the concerned parties.
However, he had no other choice, being short on personnel himself.
Previously, he was working solo, and though he organized a team now, he’s still short on people.
If the intelligence network could be established as Fourth Master imagined, there wouldn’t be a shortage of hands for these tasks.
But this assumption is too far-fetched, Qu Jianlei didn’t want to consider it too much.
His current thought is: operating straightforwardly saves time and is quite effective.
As for the resistance encountered possibly increasing, it doesn’t matter... If there’s little resistance, how can Rhodiola rosea’s team demonstrate their might?
Though thinking this way may seem self-deceiving, it does indeed objectively showcase strength better.
Since it might attract enemies from other directions, after the 8384 warship ascended, its chosen target was to dash straight ahead.
Qu Jianlei chose a star body with a diameter of over four hundred kilometers, named "Tears."
This star body is drop-shaped, resembling a teardrop, and the whole mining process of this body also draws tears.
Initially, when the star body was discovered, it had various precious metal mines, which were very rich, thus sparking fierce battles.
Unfortunately, during subsequent mining, everyone found out: the valuable metal mines only existed in the outer shell.
Such a situation isn’t uncommon as mineral veins are natural products, they can appear suddenly and disappear instantly.
Yet, on this star body, all mineral veins were distributed on the surface, with high content but abruptly broken, which was unreasonable.
If exploration hadn’t shown the star body was naturally formed, everyone would have thought it was a fraudulent setup.
So naming this star body "Tears" is indeed fitting.
Sanhe Company was involved in the struggle back then, suffering heavy losses, finally snatching a mine.
As expected, they didn’t revel for long before discovering the mineral veins had dried up.
Later, other companies withdrew gradually, but Sanhe Company felt the location was good with plenty of abandoned mine pits.
Thus, they remodeled it, establishing the company’s hub in the Asteroid Belt here.
Originally, they wanted to develop it into a market like Lanyun, but facts proved they overthought.
However, Sanhe’s hub was indeed placed here, with hospitals, repair facilities, etc., built upon it.
The environment and equipment facilities here are significantly better than Lanyun, but mysteriously, they still couldn’t establish a market.
Nevertheless, the complete facilities attracted many individual visitors to rest here, leading to a thriving service industry.
——Yet strangely, they couldn’t develop a marketplace, something with no discernible explanation.
Qu Jianlei chose it precisely because it’s Sanhe’s nerve center.
Sanhe Company holds stakes in many mines within the Asteroid Belt but only as shareholders, without any independently managed mines.
——Maybe privately they do, but such information is not something average individuals can access.
Qu Jianlei had no intention of heading to those mines, uninterested in establishing new enemies, so he came to "Tears."
Before he even arrived, Sanhe’s people had heard: Rhodiola rosea emerged to protect those who bought the card!
They knew what they had done, though they had their reasons, it was highly probable Rhodiola rosea would show up.
Yet, Sanhe’s people were unsure when the opposition would come or exactly where they would strike.
This is also the downside of casting a wide net, unaware of where to guard.
Generally speaking, Tears Star Body remains the primary defense focus, but clearly, other places shouldn’t be ignored either.
If the opponent used this misconception to hit a specific mine hard, it wouldn’t be impossible.
The Asteroid Belt values courage and interests, should the latter situation arise, no one would criticize Rhodiola rosea’s methods.
Remember, Rhodiola rosea sells Shelter Cards, only ensuring cardholders aren’t caught in the vortex.
If a buyer did get dragged into the vortex, he would react, but what exactly he would do... is not disclosed.
Rhodiola rosea’s goal should be to "teach the opposition a lesson," thus, attacking the mine might be the logical choice.
Qu Jianlei worried the opposition could be too tough to handle, but Sanhe’s people were equally troubled—too many places need guarding!
Overall, despite the high tension among Sanhe’s personnel, they couldn’t concentrate all combat power, squatting at Tears Star Body against Rhodiola rosea.
The 8384 sped all the way, and upon arrival, it opened fire on the space monitors around the star body without saying a word.
Qu Jianlei didn’t even declare war. He found there were no powerful fleets around, so he directly opened fire.
After starting the attack, he then connected to the public channel, "Rhodiola rosea in action, unrelated personnel immediately retreat to open spaces!"
"Unrelated personnel immediately retreat to open spaces, I won’t say it a third time... giving you one minute!"
The public channel was silent for three or four seconds, and then someone shouted, "Supreme Lord, please listen to our explanation!"
"I didn’t come to listen to explanations!" Qu Jianlei replied coldly, then raised his hand and cut off the communication on the public channel.
"This is simply... too much to bear!" In a room on the ground, a middle-aged man cursed through gritted teeth.
The man was of Earth Attribute A-level, with a black mole the size of a soy bean on his nose.
He was the second-in-command of Sanhe Company on the Tears Star Body, and was recovering from injuries sustained in a previous Star Wars.
"Quickly, go!" Someone rushed in, "Head to open ground, otherwise it’s too dangerous here!"
"This is a hospital!" the man with the black mole snorted coldly, "Does he dare defy the world’s condemnation by blatantly attacking a hospital?"
The hospital on the Tears Star Body wasn’t big, covering less than ten thousand square meters in total, with a building area not exceeding two thousand square meters.
It was divided into three levels, all underground, making it extremely meager.
However, despite its small size, the medical equipment and professional staff here were not inferior, ranking in the top five in the Asteroid Belt.
Furthermore, attacking a hospital was considered crossing a line in the Imperial realm and would be scorned by all.
Even during war, when the warring parties attacked each other’s hospitals, it was seen as barbaric.
Wounded soldiers had already lost combat power, and attacking a hospital would only show a lack of limits—don’t you have wounded soldiers at home?
However, the person who rushed in was also somewhat upset and couldn’t help but loudly retort.
"Sir, you are right, but when we, as a company, drag others into battle, did we consider public resentment?"
The man with the black mole heard this, and all his words got stuck in his throat.
Yes, attacking a hospital defies moral consciousness, but was it right to drag others into battle?
He never thought this was an issue before, as all the strong did it.
Dragging the weak was considered a matter of course; even the military would take similar actions during emergencies.
But now, he had to seriously face the question: the military truly had the authority to do so—they called it conscription!
But Sanhe Company was merely a commercial organization, what right did it have to forcibly conscript others to fight?
So, it was really not conscription, but actual coercion!
It’s just that everyone was used to a smooth ride before, and no one pointed this out.
Now that he hit the nail on the head, he had time to reflect, and then suddenly realized: We indeed seem somewhat unreasonable!
Before he could think more, he felt the entire basement shake violently.
Subsequently, even the room began to sway, and his whole world was spinning as if riding a roller coaster.
The next moment, he found his body floating, as light as if it had no weight.
He reached out and grabbed a metal pipe, "Damn it, the anti-gravity systems have all failed... how could he dare, how could he dare!"
But ultimately, it was the wailing of a defeated dog; amid the deafening sound of cannon fire, no one cared about his reaction.
The firing above the star body wasn’t just the 8384 ship; another repaired Customs Enforcement Warship also joined the attack.
In addition, there were two attack ships and two assault ships.
The number of starships wasn’t particularly many, but at present, all firepowers were unleashed, making the overwhelming attack extraordinarily fierce.
Although the Tears Star Body wasn’t small, the Sanhe Company’s hub didn’t cover a large area, just four or five square kilometers.
Even within this space, it’s sparsely populated; it originally only served as a gathering point.
In fact, because there was no Mine to protect, their defensive fortresses weren’t many, with only five main fortresses.
Five fortresses, one located in the center, and the other four about four kilometers away from the central fortress.
All the fortresses’ cannons firing could only protect dozens of square kilometers of land.
Some had thought about the Rhodiola rosea team attacking, but there was simply no time to temporarily build fortresses.
Besides the five main fortresses, there were some scattered small fire points, which need not be elaborated upon.
Among them, holding two Armed Merchant Ships in the star body’s underground storage was more serious.
After the star body was attacked, the two merchant ships quickly launched.
In about two minutes, the entire crew boarded the ships and took their positions.
From this response speed, it could be known that Sanhe Company had maintained high vigilance against Rhodiola rosea team’s invasion!
(Updated to call for monthly tickets, subscriptions, and recommendation tickets.)
Comments