The Highest Bounty

Chapter 150 What’s Giving The Army Marshal A Headache

A wise man once said that the sky is always calm before the storm.

After all the Interstellar Pirates’ spaceships had been destroyed by the Army, the Army enjoyed two days and two nights of peace and quiet. Nevertheless, those two days were days many members of the Army were the most worried about. Not a single person dared to touch a drop of alcohol, fearing a raid like last time would happen again

As for information regarding the Interstellar Pirates, they seemed to vanish along with the remains of the spaceships as not a trace of it was left behind. Even Sharp and Emily could feel the strange feeling of depression and tension. They knew that the Interstellar Pirates would make a move, but they did not know how or when-that was why the Army was so tense. As for the Interstellar Pirates, they had all returned to Bartow. With Neptune’s help, no one’s information was leaked. They lurked patiently, waiting for Gu Ding’s next message.

Not far from Great Divinity, the spaceship of a mercenary had finally arrived.

The three interceptors were aware of the spaceship’s presence. They had heard from the Army that Gu Ding had hired mercenaries-that was why they were extremely cautious. However, they could not just shoot any other spaceships except those owned by Interstellar Pirates-they could just be passing by.

“The Army is on a mission. Please leave immediately or we will have you evacuate by force,” the three interceptors shouted at the Silver Hawk at the same time.

“Hey, we’re just passing by. Don’t shoot, we’ll take a detour!” a husky male voice was heard from the Silver Hawk, it seemed like he was the spaceship’s captain. “Boss, your acting has improved yet again,” the pilot casually said to Captain Big Beard.

“Hehe, we’re the earliest here. Every single one we take down counts!” Big Beard’s face was flushed with excitement.

“The ship was just passing by...” The three interceptors felt relieved after seeing the Silver Hawk turn around. All of a sudden, one of the interceptors was shelled.

Only then did they notice that the Silver Hawk had two batteries installed on its rear. Having turned around, the two batteries of the spaceship were aimed exactly in their direction.

“Damn it, these mercenaries are crazy! Not even the slightest sign was seen before they opened fire. They didn’t even activate their energy barrier and fired right away. They must have done so intentionally to let our guards down.”

The other two interceptors immediately aimed at the Silver Hawk to retaliate. Nevertheless, the Silver Hawk had already popped open its energy barrier by then, and it managed to quickly dodge the attack.

Interceptors had nothing similar to the flexibility of assault ships. That was the reason why each time they showed up, they would be accompanied by several others. “The shell of the Baby Dragon is indeed thick.” The young pilot noticed that even though they had hit one of the Baby Dragons with an attack, the damage caused to the spaceship was very minimal as the attack had been blocked by the spaceship’s energy barrier. Nevertheless, they had come fully prepared. Their weaponry had gone through some modifications. For example, some of their weapons could now cause electromagnetic interferences, they could disable the spaceship hit within a short span of time and disrupt its communications.

Under the fire of two interceptors, the Silver Hawk continued to dodge. It was trying to look for an opportunity to strike back, but most of its attacks were inevitably countered by the stronger gunfire the interceptors had.

“Boss, it’s a little tricky this time. The pilots in charge of the interceptors are not inferior to me in terms of skill. The one that just got hit will soon return to action,” the pilot said grimly after having put up a fight.

“Retreat! We’ll try again once the next spaceship appears!” Big Beard decisively made the order to retreat.

Just then, the spaceship’s radar showed that another spaceship was fast approaching them. The spaceship was not too far away, and it was a Grey-faced Buzzard. “Boss, someone’s coming over. Looks like they’re mercenaries too. They’re flying a Grey-faced Buzzard.”

“Fly toward it and get it into the battlefield,” Big Beard waved his hand as he said, “It’s not that easy to steal from under our noses.”

Larwell, who was in the Grey-faced Buzzard, was a little excited. His spaceship was moving at full speed, and the journey could not have been smoother. Larwell vaguely felt that the mission would be a success.

As they approached Great Divinity, they found two parties exchanging fire.

A Silver Hawk was being sieged by two Baby Dragons. The moment Larwell saw the logo on the Silver Hawk, he knew who the spaceship belonged to. “It’s Big Beard, let us take a detour.”

“Boss, they’re heading straight for us.” The pilot seemed a bit nervous. “Damn, that Big Beard is evil. He’s clearly trying to make us his scapegoat.” Larwell scolded morosely. “Then we should simply stay put and focus all our firepower on... Huh, why isn’t that spaceship moving? Let’s focus all our firepower on that stationary ship!”

“Alright...” the pilot said timidly after receiving Larwell’s instructions. He moved the spaceship slightly before pouring focusing their firepower on the motionless Baby Dragon.

The Baby Dragon which had not yet returned to normal due to electromagnetic interference was once again attacked violently out of nowhere. Its energy barrier percentage dropped from 70% to 0% in a matter of seconds before it was completely under fire by the Grey-faced Buzzard. Not long after, it exploded into pieces. “Damn it, he took advantage of us!” Big Beard was outraged. He had planned on dragging them into the battlefield and was not expecting them to react so quickly. Instead of escaping, they attacked the half-paralyzed Baby Dragon. “Boss, should we take down the Grey-faced Buzzard?” the pilot could not help but ask.

“Our money matters more, leave it alone!” Big Beard instantly made a decision.

After the Grey-faced Buzzard had gotten rid of one of the Baby Dragons, it immediately led one of the other interceptors to attack it. Hence, some burden was lifted from Big Beard’s Silver Hawk.

“It’s diverting some of the firepower. Good job, we’ll strike back!” Big Beard issued a new order.

“Boss, we did it!” On the Grey-faced Buzzard, everyone had not thought that they would be able to take down a Baby Dragon interceptor so easily.

“Let’s get out of the battlefield and leave,” Larwell issued a weird order out of nowhere. “Boss, we still have a chance. There are two more Baby Dragons.” The others were a little reluctant.

“Do you think anything good will come out of stealing from Big Beard? If we stay, even if we don’t get killed by those two Baby Dragons, Big Beard will kill us off.” Larwell was well aware of the situation. “Come on, let’s get out of here. The faster we escape the better!”

Reluctantly, the pilot steered the spaceship around and fled into the distance. It did not take long before the Grey-faced Buzzard disappeared from the Silver Hawk’s radar.

“The Grey-faced Buzzard escaped?” Big Beard had not expected them to pull something like that. As a result, his Silver Hawk was once again under the attack of two Baby Dragons. Recognizing this, he immediately gave the order to retreat, “Let’s retreat first and wait for another spaceship to come closer.” Therefore, the Silver Hawk turned around and sped away.

Nevertheless, the pilots of the two Baby Dragons knew that everything was far from over and it was only the beginning.

Sure enough, after about less than half an hour, two more Grey-faced Buzzards appeared at almost the same time and violently opened fire at the two interceptors. Aware of what was happening, Big Beard’s Silver Hawk quickly re-entered the battleground. Then, it struck one of the Baby Dragons from the side, causing it to go through electromagnetic interference. Instantly, the energy barrier outside the Baby Dragon vanished, and a bright fire was lit in the starry sky.

Then, the three assault ships proceeded to aim all their firepower at the last Baby Dragon. A frantic barrage of gunfire poured out and it was taken down fairly quickly.

At the same time, on Great Divinity, it was at the break of dawn.

Gu Ding received a message on his wristwatch.

“Gu Ding, the Mercenary Alliance has just informed me that the three inceptors have been taken care of. They had videos of the matter verified and sent to us. There’s no problem with them. I’ve checked them myself, and there are no signs of tampering,” Neptune said as he projected the videos.

There were three videos in total. Gu Ding spent a few minutes to watch them and nodded. “Inform the others that the three Baby Dragons have been destroyed. Send them the videos as well. Tell them to meet up at the tavern not too far from the port.”

Neptune immediately sent out the videos as well as Gu Ding’s message.

Many Interstellar Pirates were thrilled the moment they saw the videos pertaining to the destruction of the three Baby Dragons. It meant that they could escape if they managed to successfully seize a spaceship. The news regarding the destruction of the Baby Dragons quickly reached the Army as well.

Howell’s face was expressionless as he watched the videos. From the very moment Gu Ding issued the mission, he knew the destruction of the three Baby Dragons was inevitable and it would only be a matter of time before they were destroyed. Sometimes, mercenaries were crazier than Interstellar Pirates. Howell immediately got someone to find out the owners of the four assault ships and placed new bounties on their heads.

Howell was in no mood to deal with the matter, and he was worried about something else. He had received a support application report from Sharp on the same night Gu Ding issued the mission.

The report contained a detailed and clear description of all that had happened on Great Divinity, including information about the death of nearly four thousand Army members. Sharp had chosen to take full responsibility for it. His reason being was that he had caused the tragedy because he ignored the bigger picture and insisted on challenging Biggie. In addition to that, Sharp made it clear that he would step down as an Army general because of the incident.

Howell was a bit skeptical about some parts of Sharp’s report. He vaguely felt that Sharp was taking everything on himself just so he could resign. The last thing Howell wanted to see was Sharp’s resignation because he had been molding Sharp as Army’s next marshal. Sharp was the strongest and most responsible person among the four generals. Additionally, he was the most experienced-he was the best candidate to serve as the next marshal.

As a marshal, Howell often thought further than the rest of the Army. Winning battles were important, but his top priority had always been maintaining the prosperity of the Army. Hence, to Howell, others could be compromised for that sake.

Howell knew that all he had to do was help Sharp weather the storm. However, the main issue was that based on Sharp’s words in his report, his resignation was a done deal. That was what Howell was having a headache about.

Howell rubbed his head and shouted at the communications officer, “Send these videos to Sharp. You don’t need to say anything. He’ll know what to do.”