The Highest Bounty

Chapter 147 Neptune’s Bad News

The angry, cursing Emily changed into a complete undamaged set of clothes and turned her gaze toward the metallic building still sitting at its original place. That was the thing that had stopped both Sharp and herself from victory. Just as she was about to take action on it, the metallic building suddenly exploded, and pieces of its debris were scattered all over the ground.

At that moment, the words ‘request for backup’ could be heard from Sharp, who was not far behind Emily. She went silent upon hearing it.

Sometimes, members of the Army would rather be defeated in the mission than request for backup. This was not because it was considered an embarrassment to fail. Everyone had failed missions at some point or another, but requesting backup was a whole different matter. This implied that whoever was in charge was incapable. It was not difficult to accept failure, but to accept oneself as being incompetent was something that most people have trouble dealing with.

“Let’s conduct a headcount of how many people we have left and see if we still stand a chance before making that decision,” Emily had a string of hope in her heart.

“This is a failed mission. It would just be a waste of time to continue agonizing over it. We can finish the mission earlier if we request for backup,” Sharp voiced his opinion.

“I’ve thought about this. I’ll bear the responsibility for what happened today. None of you will be implicated. Once this mission is over, I will resign from my post as general and leave the Army to focus on researching swordsmanship.” “Sharp, there is no need for you to do this. Requesting for backup might not be a glorified move, but this mission was always going to be a tricky one. His Highness The Lord would understand,” Emily had thought Sharp’s notion of resignation was due to the huge blow from the failed mission.

“I made the decision to resign after attaining the new ability of Knife Heart yesterday,” a smile appeared once again on Sharp’s usually blank face.

“My post in the Army was the most important responsibility to me before. It was something I had always prioritized, but now, this has become my new priority. I need to let it go in order to advance further.”

“You attained that legendary ability?” Emily pushed the question after hearing his words.

“Yes, I have. It’s an ability that I’ve always dreamt of having. I had not expected to gain it in failure. This must be fate...” Sharp shook his head and laughed bitterly. “If His Highness The Lord and the marshal found out about it, they would never let you leave,” even though Emily had no idea how powerful this legendary ability was, but it was an ability highly coveted by all swordsmanship powerhouses within the cosmos seas. Clearly, it was a powerful ability to possess.

“That is why I need you to keep this matter a secret for me,” Sharp was willing to share this with Emily because he trusted her.

“I can keep this a secret on your behalf, but you would still need to get someone trustworthy to help you take care of those video records,” Emily pointed at two surveillance cameras not far off.

“Oh, I’d have forgotten about that if you didn’t mention it,” this reminded Sharp of the surveillances conducted around the area.

He lowered his head to look at the ground covered with dead bodies, and continued, “There have been so many deaths this time around. Obviously, something went wrong with the decision-making of the strategy. If I don’t bear this responsibility, young Walter’s future would be completely ruined. It’s timely as well; I need a good excuse to retire from the Army. When the moment comes, just push all responsibility on me.” “I understand,” Emily did not say anything more. She knew that Sharp had made up his mind and there was no point in trying to talk him out of it. Besides, by doing this, Sharp had helped Walter and herself out of a bad situation. Normally, all decision-makers would need to take responsibility, but Sharp was the veteran among three of them and had the most experience, his words carried more weight. It was likely that he would make certain decisions that bypassed both of them. This had given Emily and Walter a valid excuse for denying any responsibility. “All of you, take off your mechs and round up the remaining number of people. Give them shots of sobering antidotes and let them have a good rest. Report the data to me after calculating the number of people left,” Sharp shouted the instructions to over ten mech operators at a distance. They were the only ones left at the quiet harbor at the time.

“Yes, sir!” Those mech operators gave Sharp and salute and quickly opened the hatches to their mechs and exited them. They gathered together in a discussion and delegated duties before going their separate ways.

After around half an hour, a young soldier appeared in front of Sharp. He was one of the few who was left of the mech operators.

“Reporting, sir, that we have the figures. There is a total of one thousand two hundred and sixty-three survivors, including those who are present. Eight hundred and twenty-two people are unharmed while the rest are wounded with varying severity. The medical team is currently treating the wounded.” “Got it. Have an early rest, everyone,” Sharp waved him off. Even though he was prepared to submit his resignation, it was still a headache to figure out how to write the report for this mission.

“The survivors make up only a quarter of what we had. There has definitely been a major miscalculation in the strategy. This is turning out to be a lot of trouble...” Emily was getting a migraine because of this. Sharp could get rid of his burden and leave just like that, but his resignation would mean that she was the highest-ranking person responsible for this mission, and there was quite a lot that needed salvaging here.

Sharp nodded. “A special inspection team might be assembled to investigate this mission. It would become quite troublesome. Let’s find a time to get our statements aligned without revealing something by accident, otherwise, both of you will get into trouble. By the way, is young Walter okay?”

“He’s fine. He had a little too much to drink and is passed out, sleeping on the floor. He probably has no idea what happened last night. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.” Emily sighed. “That’s just as well. You should take a rest too. It doesn’t matter if you can’t get any sleep, it will do you good to recharge. I’ll be catching up with some sleep too,” Sharp said as he walked toward Golden Eagle.

Gu Ding and the others returned to the motel after their big victory. The others had left and gone their separate ways earlier with most of them escaping to another city during the night.

Gu Ding checked up on everyone when they got back to the motel.

“Lili, are you okay?” He was most worried about Liliath’s physical condition. Being overburdened by operating with spirit had a worse effect than being physically overwhelmed.

“I’m fine. Neptune had reminded me before I exhausted my spirit. Besides, you guys ended the battle very quickly, so there was basically no effect on me.” Liliath shook her head. With the help of that power-enhancing helmet, the side-effects of her hypnosis had been significantly reduced.

“What about Biggie? Is he hurt? Sharp had given me the impression that he was much stronger than before,” Gu Ding shared his thoughts.

“I’m fine,” Biggie did not find any wounds on himself.

“Robert helped out a bunch this time as well. Thanks. If it wasn’t for you, our mission wouldn’t have gone through so smoothly,” Gu Ding was aware that there were at least two situations that would prove to be a great obstacle for them if not for Robert’s help.

“Have you gotten all your props back?”

Robert’s voice was calm and emotionless as usual. “It is my duty to help out as a member of this crew. Besides the entry-level battle fort, all of my props have been collected. I gave the battle fort a self-destruction setting that activates after the mission was over.”

“I’ve just received bad news,” Neptune suddenly said at this moment.

“I’d really much prefer good news,” Gu Ding mumbled quietly.

“Sharp and the others have decided to request for Army backup. He will be submitting the report tomorrow morning,” Neptune’s news was indeed a terrible blow to everyone.

Gu Ding had thought this battle would have put matters to rest and the Army would cease their attacks for a while. He had not expected it to turn out this way. “The Interstellar Pirates you brought along with us had killed too many soldiers in the Army. Their death rate hit more than 70 percent and those who survived make up only a quarter of their original number. There are two ways for the Army to deal with this when faced with such a situation. The first would be to admit their mission was a failure and return to Army headquarters with their tail between their knees. The second is to request backup and ask for extra help from the headquarters to settle the matter. Most would normally go with the first choice because the second choice would end up with them being looked down upon by others.”

“Why would they report this to headquarters? They could have chosen not to say a word and continue fighting it out with us, even if it means taking us down at a slower pace. They have two generals with them, and it would just be a matter of time before they completed the mission,” Gu Ding thought this would have been the more obvious choice.

“If their death rate was less than 20 percent, your suggestion would have been the best way to deal with the situation. However, this mission has caused them a death rate of more than 70 percent. If they had chosen to keep this under wraps and it was discovered by the Army and the Federal Government, they would get into serious trouble. The Federal Government might have gotten them arrested and sent to Federation Court under the ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ law,” Neptune explained.

“Crimes against humanity... The Army has too many rules!” Gu Ding could not help complaining. It’s just withholding information in the name of self-preservation, but one has to be pinned with such a serious accusation because of this. Liliath knocked on the table with her knuckle. “Hey, this is not the time to be discussing such a topic. Once backup arrives from the Army, they will be conducting a mad sweep over the entire planet, scouring every inch to capture every last one of us. When that time comes, we’ll have nowhere to run.”

Neptune gave a suggestion. “That is why the smartest thing to do right now is to leave the planet before the Army’s backup arrives. It won’t be difficult to sneak into the harbor and steal a spaceship. It also wouldn’t be difficult to turn off the Sky Shield and armor-piercing cannon. The biggest problem right now would be those Interceptors. They’ll attack any Interstellar Pirate’s spaceship at first sight without warning.”

“Neptune, can you disrupt the system of all three Interceptors?” Gu Ding asked.

“Those three Interceptors are Baby Dragons. The Army had designed this Interceptor by modeling it after the mechanical civilization. They have retained manual operation for these spaceships which are at a much higher level than that of a system operation. If I conduct an attack on their system, it would not be difficult for them to switch into manual operations. The reason they had chosen Baby Dragons was that they had considered the possibility of us hacking in the Interceptors,” Neptune had researched the internal operations of all three Baby Dragons earlier on.

“If it is truly impossible, let’s just spend some money to hire mercenaries to take down all three of those Interceptors,” Gu Ding suddenly thought up of an unconventional way of solving this problem. Everyone had only heard about the Federation Army hiring mercenaries, but this was the first that anyone has ever heard of Interstellar Pirates hiring mercenaries.