270: Chapter 271 Rogue Trader

This was a shared source of anxiety and pain for all three of their families.

And now, these people could actually name their surnames and places of origin with such accuracy!

The Archduchess stood up in excitement, even bowing slightly to Dumpling in an ancient rite:

"I truly never expected that, in my lifetime, I would meet other fellow survivors who still retain their complete heritage! My name is Melissa Lan. On behalf of the entire Melissa family, I am very willing to engage in the deepest, all-encompassing cooperation with your fleet!"

The three of them exchanged glances, seeing the pleasant surprise in each other's eyes.

After the cooperative meeting concluded, with the strong support and green light from Archduchess Melissa.

The players of Baby Bus acted with astonishing efficiency. They quickly marked out a large plot of land on the surface of the planet belonging to Melissa, at an excellent location near a transportation hub, and began breaking ground to build a large transfer warehouse.

The construction progress of the warehouse was swift, advancing by leaps and bounds.

Once the warehouse was completed, these life-skill players could comfortably become happy merchants, making a fortune on this virgin land that had not yet been harvested by the Imperium of Man.

During this process, Melissa Lan had also been secretly observing these outsiders who claimed to be survivors of Ancient Terra.

When she heard from Yu's report that these warriors, in their bones, actually disliked fighting and were instead filled with a fanaticism for farming, animal husbandry, and trading.

This Archduchess, who had seen countless people, felt a huge stir in her heart and was even quite surprised.

Because she knew the cruel nature of The Galaxy far too well. In this dark universe where the weak are prey to the strong and aliens and demons run rampant, farming and trading without the protection of absolute force would only end up becoming fat meat on someone else's table, serving as a wedding dress for the strong.

If there really was such a group of people who could devote all their energy to production and trade without any worries, then the only explanation was that within the Spark Alliance system they belonged to, there must be a powerful figure with unfathomable strength, capable of fending off all external enemies, providing them with a protective umbrella!

"It seems the leader behind them is definitely a ruthless character; this force is worth us winning over." Lan silently assessed in her heart.

In their daily interactions, the players and the lower-level members of the Melissa family gained a better understanding of each other, and the hostility between the two sides quickly dissolved under the lubrication of trade.

At this moment. On the surface of the Melissa planet, at the construction site of the Baby Bus large warehouse, the sky was filled with the roaring sound of machinery.

Guild President Dumpling was wearing a yellow hard hat, standing on high scaffolding, waving blueprints and directing the hired local indigenous people to carry out engineering work.

The construction methods of these local workers opened the players' eyes. They did not use traditional cranes or excavators, but instead skillfully operated a type of humanoid construction vehicle that was four or five meters tall and resembled a miniature version of a knight mecha!

These industrial mechs were equipped with hydraulic pliers and heavy-duty welding equipment on their arms, making lifting dozens of tons of alloy steel beams as easy as building with blocks; the construction progress was ridiculously fast.

"Move that load-bearing wall ten centimeters to the left! Yes! Weld it shut!" Dumpling shouted loudly.

Just then, Luluchiu ran over, panting, from a hovercar.

"Dumpling! Come down quickly! There's the latest intelligence!" Luluchiu shouted from under the scaffolding.

Dumpling nimbly climbed down the ladder and handed Luluchiu a bottle of mineral water:

"What's wrong? Running so urgently. Could it be that the Archduchess wants to go back on her word and charge us double the land tax?"

"It's not about the tax!"

Luluchiu unscrewed the cap and took a sip,

"I just used Yu's channels to figure out the attitudes of the other two families!"

Luluchiu's expression was somewhat grave:

"The Yerut family, whose family crest is a sun, is very dissatisfied with the Melissa family's unilateral cooperation with us! Their attitude is quite tough. I've received word that the Yerut family is already secretly mobilizing their fleet, and there are even signs that they might directly attack our Void Ship parked in orbit!"

"However, there is also good news."

Luluchiu changed the subject, "The other family, the Sading family, whose crest features mountains and rivers, has a somewhat softened attitude. They seem to think that we can also be won over. The Sading family has just secretly sent a representative over, wanting to further understand our specific background and military configuration."

After listening, Dumpling rubbed his chin and pondered for a while, a smile appearing on his tense face.

"This is a huge piece of good news!"

Dumpling slapped his thigh,

"As long as we can successfully establish stable interest exchanges with the Melissa and Sading families and tie them to our chariot, then the remaining Yerut family, no matter how arrogant they are, will definitely not dare to risk being besieged by two families to do anything to us! This is called checks and balances!"

However, just as Dumpling was preparing to plan the next step of the business blueprint.

"Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!"

The tactical pv terminal worn on the wrists of several players working nearby suddenly emitted a rapid and ear-piercing all-band alarm sound simultaneously!

Because these players had crossed the star sea and left the Yuanwang Star System.

At this vast distance, their PVs could not receive information from players in other galaxies at all and could only rely on the Baby Bus Void Ship as a signal base station for internal local area network channel chatting.

Usually, everyone had their own work to do, and except for occasional chatting in the channel, they rarely used the highest-level all-band broadcast.

Therefore, hearing this piercing alarm, the players on site were very surprised and stopped what they were doing one after another.

Dumpling's heart sank, and he quickly raised his wrist to tap on the PV screen.

He saw on the public screen of the guild channel that Dog Bro, who was left behind on the Void Ship, was frantically spamming the chat with large text:

[Attention everyone! Emergency! A large number of unidentified ships are tearing through space! They are jumping out of the Warp near our ship! Very close to us!!]

...

Meanwhile.

On the command bridge of the Baby Bus Void Ship.

Red battle alarm lights were flashing frantically.

Dog Bro rested his hands on the command console, staring at the huge red dots continuously lighting up on the holographic projection.

As the energy ripples of the Warp continued to surge.

One black ship after another, filled with violent aesthetics, like a school of sharks that had smelled blood, successively warped to the edge of this galaxy!

Penny Is My Wife was standing in front of the huge observation porthole, holding a high-precision tactical telescope, relying on her hardcore knowledge reserve of Warhammer settings to quickly identify the enemy ship models one by one:

"There are a total of... eight Cobra-class destroyers! More than twenty high-speed Hazeroth-class privateer ships! And one Sword-class frigate commanding from the center!"

Penny put down the telescope, her expression somewhat ugly,

"The hull is indeed painted with the official double-headed eagle emblem of the Imperium of Man. However, apart from the double-headed eagle, there are no paint codes on the ships that can prove their specific affiliated legion or organization!"

In the vast Imperium of Man.

Besides formal organizations with clear standardized paint schemes like the Imperial Navy, Space Marine chapters, the Ecclesiarchy's Sisters of Battle, or the Adeptus Arbites.

There is also a very special type of independent civilian force that can legally obtain and possess such a large and heavily armed private fleet!

"It's a Rogue Trader!"

Penny concluded with certainty,

"This is most likely a Rogue Trader fleet holding an Imperial sacred trade warrant!"

Upon hearing this name, Dog Bro's brows instantly knitted into a tight knot.

"Rogue Trader? How could these money-grubbing, fearless lunatics happen to arrive here at this critical moment?"

"This galaxy is a treasure trove we worked so hard to discover! If they run over here at this time, they might have smelled the scent of money and are planning to rely on their superior number of ships and guns to forcibly snatch this territory from us!"

As players of The Fourth Calamity, although they acted without taboos.

In the game rules of warhammer 40k ol, before figuring out the details, when encountering unknown human NPC forces, one usually must absolutely not open fire directly.

Therefore, although the main cannon of the Baby Bus was already charged, the players did not make any radical moves.

They just silently remained parked in place, maintaining a defensive posture, and vigilantly watched this massive fleet.

On the other side.

The reactions of the three families also appeared very slow and chaotic.

Faced with this sudden foreign fleet, they obviously hadn't figured out what was going on either.

Except for the main fleets of the Melissa family and the Sading family, which were currently stationed in other defensive areas and whose exact locations were unknown.

Only the fleet of the Yerut family—the Sons of the Sun who had been guarding against the players all along—was currently staying in this low orbit at full strength.

The Commander of the Yerut family fleet saw ships with the double-headed eagle emblem appear. Out of fear of the Imperium of Man, they did not open fire at the first moment, but instead pushed their shield power to the maximum.

"The situation is not good."

Dog Bro said anxiously, looking at the eerie standoff on the radar,

"If this Rogue Trader fleet has hostility towards the three families, then something big might happen soon!"

Penny nodded and added:

"The thing I fear most is the three families making a misjudgment! They have been in a closed state.

If they think this suddenly appearing Imperial fleet is with us! Then once this fleet opens fire on the three families, we will be caught in the middle and won't be able to clear our names; we will definitely be targeted by concentrated fire!"

At this time, Wu A Level Combo, who was standing on the side, waved his claws impatiently and said in a rough voice:

"What the hell are you afraid of! Since we are afraid they will misunderstand, why don't we just strike first, turn our guns, and hit that Rogue Trader fleet? It just so happens that we can also submit a pledge of allegiance to the three families and get on good terms with them!"

However.

Just when the players were still hesitating about who to hit first and how to explain.

The Rogue Trader fleet, which had already formed up in space and had been silent for a while, seemed to have made some kind of decision internally!

Completely unexpected by the players and the three families!

This Rogue Trader fleet actually chose to open fire on both sides simultaneously without any form of diplomatic communication warning!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The offensive unfolded swiftly and viciously!

The heavy lance array on the Rogue Trader flagship fired in a volley instantly! Blinding high-temperature energy beams tore through the pitch-black space, bombing the Yerut family fleet observing from orbit in the distance without any blind spots!

Fortunately, the opponent was prepared and blocked it with their Void Shield!

Immediately after.

Those twenty-plus high-speed Hazeroth-class privateer ships pushed their engine power to the limit in an instant!

Like wild dogs off the leash, they wove out from the blind spots of the meteorite belt on the flank, carrying violent kinetic energy, and plunged straight toward the nearest planet belonging to the mountain and river lord, the Sading family!

Obviously, these greedy Rogue Traders wanted to use a blitzkrieg to seize the initiative and directly carry out planetary landing and looting!

And on the other side!

Eight Cobra-class destroyers loaded with heavy torpedoes adjusted their course, their tail flames erupting with blinding red light, and charged fiercely toward the Baby Bus in a character-shaped attack formation!

The whole scene was instantly in chaos!

"Damn it! These NPCs are crazy! Daring to hit me!"

Dog Bro looked at the torpedo warning speeding toward him on the radar, his eyes instantly turning red, and he roared into the ship-wide broadcast:

"All hands! Fire the Mass-Energy Conversion Cannon at full power! Blast these biting mad dogs into slag for me!"