Evolution - Chapter 66
Chapter 66
As the old saying goes, your enemy knows you better than you know yourself.
Adonis paid an extraordinary amount of attention to this sole surviving enemy of his. He knew just how filthy and perverted the man was in private. Moreover, with his own military background, Adonis had specifically studied this man’s style of command.
The man had ability and skill; otherwise, he couldn’t have committed every depraved act imaginable on one hand while remaining a glamorous noble with real power on the other.
“He’s extremely paranoid. He won’t let anyone he didn’t personally train get close to him, not even on the same flagship. But this time, he clearly wanted to keep a low profile and didn’t use his personal flagship.” Adonis’s fingers flew across the command console, simulating a model of the warship. “This is a new model from twelve years ago. Its weapon systems have been adjusted for better stealth, a wider detection range, higher precision, and greater speed. Its only flaw is probably that its capacity was reduced from ten thousand to seven thousand.”
Of course, he didn’t mention that this particular paranoia of his enemy’s was the result of no fewer than ten assassination attempts that Adonis himself had personally planned over the past thirty-five years, which had finally scared the man into jumping at shadows.
“Everyone thinks this operation was an accident, but since we’re cooperating, I believe it’s best to be honest. He came here because he received news of a secret mine appearing in the chaotic starfield. He wanted it all for himself, which is why he set out in such a hurry with only three warships.”
“I was the one who went to great lengths to feed him that information.”
Although he still hadn’t managed to send his enemy to his grave in this ambush, one of the three warships had been shot down, and another had sustained some damage.
Ji Changqing and the others couldn’t help but be amazed.
What could they say? All they could do was cup their hands in respect. He was a true man of grit!
Adonis smiled. At first, he had only wanted revenge. Later, he found that constantly making trouble for these dregs of society was particularly interesting, and he could even help people who might have been harmed by them along the way.
He felt that perhaps from long immersion in hatred, he had already become twisted.
No, perhaps he’d already gone mad when he learned of Jeff’s suicide.
But there was no need to explain all that. He cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention back. “The warship he’s on probably has fewer than five thousand people. According to his habits, the ship is likely parked in a hidden location, and your companions should be held somewhere nearby.” After a pause, he added, “He has a hobby of recording and watching people in compromising situations.”
With that, Ji Changqing and the others understood. He was paranoid, so he wouldn’t keep the captives on his own warship. Yet his perverted hobby was quite peculiar; he needed to record and monitor them. That meant they had to be placed nearby, combining surveillance and recording into one. If the mood struck, he might even be able to select a person on the spot, right?
“In your plan, we join forces, and with a warship, our bargaining power increases significantly.” Adonis looked at the group and smiled gently. “But with your weakness in his hands, I’m afraid it will be difficult to get what you want.”
“From the moment we started preparing for the military academy entrance exams, I believe we all understood what it means to become a soldier.” Ji Changqing lowered her eyes and squeezed her fingers. “For a soldier to die in battle is an honor. If the alternative is to live in humiliation, only to die silently in some unknown corner of the Empire later, I think any Alliance soldier with an ounce of backbone would, and should, choose the former.”
Adonis was somewhat surprised. Logically, military academy candidates, being in their hot-blooded and impulsive phase, were not yet ruthless or tough enough. It was rare for them to be able to assess a situation and make a choice with such cold rationality.
Forget academy candidates; even official soldiers would rarely dare to make such a decision.
After all, who knew who was among the nearly ten thousand people trapped inside?
Humans are animals that easily misplace their anger. Even if they knew it was the best choice, it wouldn’t stop them from resenting the person who made the decision. What if there was a reckoning later on…
But Ji Changqing wore a calm expression, handling a heavy matter as if it were light. And the others present remained silent, but no one objected.
So, they had tacitly granted her command authority?
For a rare moment, Adonis took an interest in her and extended a warm invitation. “If you can’t make it in the Alliance, you’re welcome to join us!”
“You truly have a keen eye for talent!” Ji Changqing was amused by him. “But my judgment isn’t bad either. The Alliance is quite good.”
Adonis raised an eyebrow. “As I said, it’s a standing offer. You’re welcome anytime.”
After a bit of banter, the two tacitly returned to the topic at hand.
How this battle would be fought and what outcome they could achieve really depended on how quickly rescue arrived.
But they still needed a complete plan. They couldn’t just sit and wait for rescue, could they? How was that any different from giving up?
“To save the trapped candidates, we can’t directly attack his flagship. With this new type of warship, if we destroy these three points, more than half of its weapon systems will be disabled. We need to advance on three fronts.”
One prong, composed entirely of Betas unaffected by pheromones, would sneak to the location, ready to rescue the captives at a moment’s notice.
One prong was the warship. It would control the air. The best-case scenario was to lure away the other enemy warship and, in the process, cripple the weapon systems of the noble’s flagship. However, this would require assistance from another prong.
The third prong was the most dangerous. They had to find a way to infiltrate, get close to the warship’s docking area, and find a way to blow up the other two points that could disable most of its weapon systems.
Otherwise, trying to fight a warship with their bare hands, they’d have to have a death wish.
Just then, a cheer erupted from the other side. After more than an hour of work, Lu Youxia and several technicians had finally managed to open a small window in the interstellar communications and send out a distress signal.
After the cheers, everyone’s spirits lifted, and they quickly got to work erasing their tracks. Otherwise, if someone traced them to their exact location before the warship was fully repaired, it would be a perfect opportunity for a precision strike.
Ji Changqing’s mood also lightened considerably. Confirming that the distress signal had been sent meant they were reconnected with the outside world, no longer an isolated island, cut off and forced to rely only on themselves.
As for organizing the three prongs of the attack, that matter was left to Gu Changge’s fated teammates to worry about. She and Gu Changge were exhausted. After He Qingping brought over the second batch of technicians, they handed things over, actively signed up for the third prong, and then found a random spot to curl up and rest.
Gu Changge even whispered a promise to Ji Changqing, “The message was sent to my sister. My sister is very capable. Don’t worry, Changqing, we will protect you.”
He was still thinking about Adonis trying to recruit Ji Changqing to become a space pirate and roam the sea of stars!
His sister would definitely contact and arrange for her own people to handle this at top speed. When that happened, hehehe, certain things that shouldn’t be known could naturally be covered up quietly.
For example, if they really reached the worst-case scenario and couldn’t save those who had fallen into enemy hands, it wasn’t a crime of war, and they couldn’t really let Ji Changqing bear the blame, right?
“Alright, plan for the worst, hope for the best,” Ji Changqing patted his shoulder. “What if we succeed, right?”
While they slept, He Qingping assembled nearly ten thousand Betas and began moving toward the location He Qingzhi had provided.
Adonis, showing great sincerity, picked two hundred Betas from his own crew to go with them. Having these experienced veterans leading the way would surely be better.
They didn’t sleep for long. About three hours passed, and with more than two thousand people working together, the warship was finally repaired.
Ji Changqing and Gu Changge were woken up to prepare for the next phase of the plan.
He Qingping, Lu Youwen, Lu Youxia, and Eve remained on the warship. Weisman and Cheng Jian, like Ji Changqing and Gu Changge, volunteered for the third prong.
It was hard to say which of the three prongs was safer.
The prong with nearly ten thousand Betas, while unaffected by pheromones, would have to face opponents with stronger individual combat abilities—even people who might have once been comrades. Furthermore, they were too close to the Imperial warships. If the other two prongs failed to provide a strong enough diversion, and the Imperial warship decided that what it couldn’t have, it would destroy, it could spare a few cannon shells for them. The probability of casualties was extremely high.
The warship prong had to lure away one Imperial warship while also tying down another. It seemed safe, but if anything went wrong, the chances of survival were extremely slim.
The third prong needed to pass through heavy defenses, get close to the Imperial warship, and infiltrate to plant bombs. It was practically a suicide mission.
There was apprehension on their young faces, but even more so, there was the heroic spirit of facing death with high morale. No one said things like “This is dangerous, let me do it,” or “This path is relatively safe, you should stay here.”
They said their goodbyes, laughing and joking, and made grand pronouncements: “After we take care of that Imperial bunch, see you back at the academy!”
Adonis was also quite generous with the third prong, providing a small spacecraft to get them nearby.
The space pirate crew’s arsenal had been considered quite large, but compared to the vast number of candidates, it was a drop in the bucket. Adonis waved his hand. Who knew if they would even survive this? “Distribute it all. Every person equipped is one more.”
Time quietly slipped by to 7 AM on the sixth day of the assessment.
After confirming that all teams were in position, Adonis ordered the warship to lift off and simultaneously connected to the comms of his last remaining enemy.
“Adonis!” The connection was quickly established. The man on the other end was exceptionally handsome, but his expression was gloomy, and he seemed to be gritting his teeth. He looked at Adonis as if a fishbone were stuck in his throat, wishing he could eat his flesh and sleep on his skin. It was this mad dog, clinging to him for over thirty years, not only constantly disrupting his clandestine businesses but also ruining his chances of earning merit several times, making his position in the Empire increasingly difficult. He had been forced to take this risk, only to fall into his trap again.
But it wasn’t all bad. Chasing this mad dog here had led to an unexpected harvest of over ten thousand prey, which was a decent reward.
He just needed to kill this mad dog Adonis, retrieve the storage sphere, and leave this afternoon. From then on, the sky would be high for birds to fly, the sea wide for fish to leap.
He had been worried this mad dog wouldn’t show up, but who knew he would eagerly come to deliver himself to death’s door.
Adonis smiled faintly. “Don’t get so excited. I’m just the operator.” He stepped aside, revealing He Qingping. “Someone from the Alliance wants to discuss a deal with you.”
He Qingping tossed the glittering golden storage sphere in his hand. “Release our people, and this is yours.”
His style was completely different from the cheeky Ji Changqing. He was direct, straight to the point.
The other party was clearly unimpressed. “You dare to bargain with me when you’re at death’s door!”
He had done his homework. Before 6 PM, he held a huge advantage. Even if the Alliance dispatched a fleet from the nearest point, the fastest they could arrive would be around 8 PM.
He Qingping was naturally aware of this as well. His eyes were deep, but his young face showed no trace of immaturity. “This is our sincerity. What do you think? If we were to abandon them and leave with this warship, how high do you think the probability is?”
The man on the other side’s expression tightened slightly. He adjusted his attitude but didn’t reply to He Qingping directly, instead turning to provoke Adonis. “It seems you plan to be the Alliance’s running dog?”
Adonis said calmly, “Being a dog for the Alliance is still better than facing scum like you in the Empire.”
The other man smiled maliciously. “Is that so? You…”
He wanted to say how his little brother, Jeff, had once writhed and pleased him beneath his body.
But he was cut off by He Qingping’s cold voice. “Your Excellency, is this a lack of sincerity? Are you trying to stall for time to locate us for an interception? There’s no need. I guarantee, as fast as you come, we’ll leave even faster.”
The man on the other side narrowed his eyes, deeply displeased. A brat from the Alliance who still smelled of his mother’s milk dared to interrupt him so casually.
Moreover, the other party was a mere Beta, born to be trampled under the feet of Alphas like them.
He subtly signaled the people behind him to continue tracking their position. “How do you plan to hand it over to me?”
He Qingping gave a coordinate. “There’s no need to track our position. Bring your warship here. As soon as we confirm our people are released, we will hand the storage sphere over to the crew of your warship.”
The man raised an eyebrow, about to say something.
Adonis chimed in mockingly from the side, “Of course, for a treacherous villain like you who has never understood the meaning of a gentleman’s promise, and is a coward afraid of death, if you’re worried it’s an ambush, then come along.”
The two sides clashed verbally, probing each other. After a long-winded session of haggling, they finally agreed that the Imperial side would withdraw the personnel guarding the “prey” and all warships would pull back over a hundred kilometers. At the same time, they would send one warship to the designated location, where both ships would dock for negotiations aboard.
Docking the warships meant neither you nor I could run away.
At 8 AM, a communication request connected to Adonis’s warship.
The people in the command room were filled with uncertainty. Where was this communication from?
Adonis looked at the number. “It’s not an Imperial warship.”
The Fourth Military students, led by He Qingping, grew excited. With trembling hands, they accepted the call.
As soon as it connected, a voice like the music of the heavens came through:
“This is the Xiwier, flagship of the Alliance Expeditionary Force’s Sixth Fleet. We have received your distress signal. Please confirm your identity.”
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