771: Chapter 771 The Surprise of the Guard Division

Looking at the densely packed, seemingly endless Compressed Planets in the storage bay, a lackey following beside the Pirate Boss felt a lingering sense of dread. Finally unable to hold back, he stepped forward and asked in a cautious, lowered voice.

"Boss, are we... really taking it all? Not leaving even one for them?"

He knew all too well that this was an entire ship of planets worth trillions of star coins, all of which were official Empire materials.

If they were to hijack all of them, the severity of the matter would be no less than directly slaughtering the entire Transport Fleet. It would inevitably enrage the Empire, and the retaliation that followed would be far beyond what they could endure.

The Pirate Boss was staring at the planets with glowing eyes, his fingertips trembling slightly with excitement. Hearing this, he burst into loud laughter—a wild, triumphant laugh filled with reckless arrogance.

"Of course we're taking it all! Since it's already in my hands, do you expect me to spit it back out and return it to them? Wishful thinking!"

He waved his hand, his tone brimming with self-satisfaction.

"Once we sell all these planets on the black market, we'll have more star coins than we can ever spend. Then we can directly purchase larger, stronger, and more starships to thoroughly expand our power!"

Getting excited, the Pirate Boss beat his chest and spoke with spit flying, his eyes filled with a crazed longing for the future.

"When that time comes, I'll get myself a whole star destroyer and get you guys a frigate! Damn it, we'll do it big and strong, and create even more glory!"

At this moment, the Pirate Boss had long been blinded by the massive wealth of trillions of star coins. His mind was filled only with the carefree life after becoming rich, completely casting aside the serious consequences of offending the Xili Empire and being hunted down by official forces. He no longer felt the slightest bit of trepidation.

Since even their leader was so arrogant and resolute, the lackeys below completely let go of all their concerns. No one thought about the risks anymore.

Upon receiving the order to move everything, all the pirates immediately began working with great fervor. Each one was nimble, operating transport machinery and carrying storage devices, frantically transferring the planets from the storage bay to their own starships. Their eyes were filled with a greedy mania, determined not to leave a single one behind and to claim this staggering wealth all for themselves.

...

The Lipugong Supercluster border Guard Division Base was located on the core defense planet of the Star Domain. The entire Base's ship harbor was brightly lit, with tens of thousands of standardized starships lined up in neat formations. Their hulls were engraved with the exclusive insignia of the Xili Empire Guard Division, and they remained in a state of combat readiness year-round. Personnel in various command cabins and combat readiness rooms rotated continuously, maintaining perfect order.

At this time, inside the high-level Command Room of the Base, an emergency communication alarm suddenly rang out, its piercing tone shattering the calm of the cabin.

The Guard Division officer in charge of the station took the communication. After listening to the full report of the Transport Fleet's attack, his originally steady expression suddenly changed. His hand gripping the communicator tightened abruptly, and his eyes were filled with shock and fury.

In the borders of the Lipugong Supercluster, although there had been pirate raids in the past, they had only ever dared to target the fleets of private transport companies. They had always avoided crossing the line of official Empire fleets, which was a tacitly accepted boundary between them.

But this time, these pirates were actually bold enough to directly target an official Transport Fleet bearing the Empire's insignia and publicly plunder Empire materials. This was undoubtedly a blatant provocation, showing that they did not respect the Guard Division stationed at the border at all.

"Simply lawless! These outlaws are becoming more and more arrogant!"

The officer slammed the communicator heavily onto the command console, a thick Aura of rage radiating from him. He no longer hesitated and immediately pressed the combat assembly command, shouting sternly into the communication channel.

"Mobilize the Third Detachment immediately! Everyone, gear up and set out to the coordinates where the Transport Fleet was attacked!"

Only a few minutes after the order was given, the full combat assembly was completed within the defense harbor. Over a hundred standardized Guard Division starships slowly rose into the air, their engines emitting azure energy beams, creating a magnificent Aura.

This regular army fleet consisted mostly of powerful galaxy-class main battle starships equipped with standard Empire armaments. Whether in hull strength, firepower output, or overall combat capability, they could comprehensively crush that ragtag pirate fleet, which had only a few galaxy-class starships, forming an absolute suppression of combat power.

The starship formation quickly organized into a combat array and advanced at full speed toward the incident airspace, vowing to wipe out this group of pirates who dared to challenge the Empire's authority.

...

Inside the transport ship's storage bay, the last Compressed Planet was moved to the pirate starship's storage hold. The pirate lackey responsible for the final count ran quickly to the boss's side, his expression filled with urgency and panic as he urged in a low voice.

"Boss, everything's done. All the planets have been transferred. Let's get out of here! This Transport Fleet must have already called the Guard Division for help. They'll be here before long, and then we won't be able to leave even if we want to!"

The Pirate Boss glanced at the empty storage bay and then at the Compressed Planets packed tightly in the starship's storage hold. With a greedy smile in his eyes, he immediately gave a stern order.

"You're right. Notify everyone to evacuate immediately! All ships return to positions. Activate the maximum-span spatial jump engines and jump directly out of the Empire's border jurisdiction. Get far away from this Star Domain!"

Upon hearing this, the pirates scrambled toward their respective starships. The once noisy transport ship was instantly left with only the sound of hurried footsteps and the mechanical hum of ships docking and separating.

Just as the pirate fleet was about to tighten its formation and initiate the spatial jump program, strange ripples of energy suddenly appeared in the Void Realm of the entire airspace. The surrounding space began to fluctuate violently, and spatial folds rapidly emerged.

In the blink of an eye, countless blinding white beams of light pierced the dark Universe. Over a hundred snow-white standardized starships, engraved with the insignia of the Imperial Guard Division, suddenly appeared in this airspace like divine soldiers descending from the heavens, instantly occupying all strategic positions.