Chapter 1291 Impact and Stand
On the ground, the Guild of G.o.ds players posed and took pictures with Dafis’ corpse. After being overjoyed for a little while, they all quickly realized the same thing and knew that this was not the end yet. They quickly wiped the smiles off their faces, took out their weapons, and looked at the Feeney Civilization’s army in the sky.
Jupiter stared closely at their fleet. Once they made any move, he would immediately tell the others to flee.
However, the two fleets looked at each other like this for as long as five minutes, yet the Feeney Civilization still did not attack them and remained at the edge of the battlefield. It was as if they had made up their mind to just watch the show.
Jupiter’s expression also turned from grave to confused.
He realized he could not figure out the Feeney Civilization’s position anymore. At the start, they protected Dafis, yet they watched him die when their army was here, even firing at him, nailing his coffin and helping them to complete the kill. Once the dust had settled, the Feeney Civilization’s army still watched on the side and did not seem to want to arrest them…
Whose side are you on really?
“President, they’re all intimidated by your presence.” Poseidon’s fawning voice appeared in the channel.
Humph, you’ve been disagreeing with me and disrupting the morale of our people all this time, but now you finally thought of fawning upon me? It’s too late!
Jupiter snorted in his mind, contemplated, and said, “Retrieve the players on the ground, but keep an eye on the movements of the enemy fleet at all times. If things don’t seem right, immediately kill yourself and revive on the s.h.i.+ps.”
As the order was given, the guild fleet started using retraction beams to retrieve the players on the ground while paying full attention to the Feeney Civilization’s army. As soon as they showed any signs of attempting to stop them, they would turn around and flee right away.
However, the Feeney Civilization never reacted at all. They just remained stationary and watched the Guild of G.o.ds clean up the battlefield and retrieve their players. Seeing this, the guild fleet became more daring and sped up the retrieving of the players.
Even when the guild fleet had retrieved all the players, the Feeney Civilization still did not make any move.
“Weird, why aren’t they doing anything?”
Jupiter was confused.
Nonetheless, since they were not going to stop them, he did not plan to stay there any longer. Suppressing the confusion in his mind, he ordered the fleet to retreat.
The guild fleet rapidly left Planet Burger and disappeared. At this point, the Feeney Civilization army finally moved. Part of its fleet chased after the guild fleet, while other s.h.i.+ps landed on the surface to clean the city ruins and rescue the survivors.
The command s.h.i.+ps stopped at the dock, and the hatch opened. The fleet commander walked down the gangway with a frustrated expression and saw the Planet Burger manger walking toward him angrily right away.
After the guild fleet retreated, only then did the Planet Burger manager dare climb out of the safehouse underground. He had been waiting there for quite some time and started questioning the commander immediately.
“What was going on? You didn’t pick up my communication request, nor did you pick up my calls. Didn’t the people above say they sent you here to a.s.sist us? Why didn’t you attack? Even letting these brutes leave? What the h.e.l.l are you people here for?”
The fleet commander did not look happy either. Suppressing the frustration in his heart, he explained, “All of the fleet’s artificial intelligence systems stopped working earlier. Someone took over all our s.h.i.+ps. We could not control them at all. Plus, our communication channels with the outside world were all cut off too. We could not contact anyone.”
The Planet Burger manager’s enraged expression froze. He said with shock, “What happened?”
“Someone paralyzed our fleet, most likely a Beyond Grade A Virtual Mechanic…” The fleet commander lowered his voice subconsciously.
Startled, the Planet Burger manager quickly looked around as if he suspected someone was monitoring him.
“Don’t be so nervous, I’m just speculating,” the fleet commander said.
He was filled with frustration. Initially, the order he received was to work with Dafis to capture these brutes. However, when he arrived at the scene, he was shocked to realize that the fleet’s artificial intelligence system was not working at all. Not only that, someone even controlled their s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps to launch a round of fire at Dafis. He could do nothing but watch Dafis die and those brutes leave. Only after that did he regain control of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps.
The enemy’s hacking was untraceable. The crew of the fleet had absolutely no way of fighting against it, and they could only stare at the ‘Candy Crush’ on their screens.
If these brutes really came from the Black Star Army, Black Star might have done this personally… It was because of this speculation that the fleet commander did not dare to make any extreme moves. Even after he regained control of the s.h.i.+ps, he only sent a small fleet after the enemies while he cheekily remained on the planet. “Then… What do we do now?” The Planet Burger manager was still shocked.
The fleet commander sighed. “I’ve already reported what happened here to the upper echelons. Let’s wait for their response. This is not a decision we can make.” At this time, his communicator rang. An upper echelon of the Feeney Civilization came online, looked at the two of them, and said with a deep voice, “This was a private battle. The two sides conflicted in Dafis’ headquarters, and the law enforcement went to investigate. Dafis used the law enforcements to escape all the way to Planet Burger and landed on the planet surface without having obtained approval, wanting to make use of the planet’s garrison fleet to stop his enemies. Because of that, he brought disaster to the planet’s residents. Before we could banish him, the second group of brutes came and attacked the planet. Understood?”
The Planet Burger manager was stunned for a second, then understood the meaning behind this and hastily nodded.
Planet Burger suffered huge casualties, and it became a big matter in the civilization. The upper echelons wanted to reduce its influence and remove their responsibility for the matter. Therefore, from now on, Dafis had absolutely no connection with them; everything he did was based on his own will.
The emissary did not exist, nor was he, the planet manager, ordered to protect Dafis. As long as they did not say anything, on the surface, Dafis was using them and brought the disaster to Planet Burger. Planet Burger was just the victim… This way, the rage of the Feeney Civilization citizens would be transferred onto these brutes, and the upper echelons did not have to take the blame for it.
“What about us?” the fleet commander asked.
The upper echelon glanced at him and slowly said, “You guys were dispatched to stop this disaster. Dafis brought the disaster, so the army prioritized killing him, successfully eliminating the brute who caused this. After that, you let the other group of brutes leave because they took citizens of the Planet Burger hostage. Hence, your army let them leave for the time being, only chasing after them later, s.h.i.+fting the battlefield, all to reduce the civilian casualties, understood?”
“Understood.”
The fleet commander heaved a sigh of relief while giving the upper echelon a thumbs up in his mind.
It was still the same matter, but just by changing how they described it, it felt completely different. Not only were most of the responsibilities removed from them, but they also emphasized their image of protecting the safety of their citizens. Marvelous!
At this time, the upper echelon suddenly changed his tone. He said with a bit of anger, “Of course, this is just to calm the citizens down. As for those Immortals, we will openly condemn their actions and bring the attention of the public to them. We will also report to the Civilization Conference and ask the three Universal Civilizations to give us an explanation!”
“Emphasize that they’re the Black Star Army’s men?” the Planet Burger manager asked.
“No, we can only say they might be from the Black Star Army. Just emphasize that they’re Immortals…” The upper echelon clenched his teeth.
The fleet was taken over instantly. It was most likely the doing of a Beyond Grade A Virtual Mechanic and not just an ordinary Beyond Grade A; it might very likely be Black Star himself.
The reason the Feeney Civilization was not afraid of offending the Black Star Army was that the army was too far from the Endless Nebulae. However, since Black Star might have acted personally, they had to hold back to a certain extent.
However, the Feeney Civilization was not going to just put up with this. They suffered severe civilian casualties, so as the victims, they had the moral high ground. They were definitely going to make a big deal out of it. Of course, they also considered the possibility of Black Star having the evidence of them protecting Dafis.
However, this risk was not enough to turn them into cowards. The Feeney Civilization clearly knew that even if they were found out to have protected Dafis, they would still have the moral high ground. The side that actively slaughtered civilians would always be the side that was wrong. Them protecting Dafis would not be the main cause of it, but the fact that these Immortals did not retreat and still attacked… This was the logic of the galactic society, the rules set by the Peace Treaty.
Actually, the upper echelons very much wanted to insist these Immortals were from the Black Star Army. However, when they tried finding evidence earlier, they discovered that all evidence that pointed toward the army disappeared. This group of Immortals suddenly became a ‘ghost team’ with unknown origins.
These upper echelons knew that someone had erased the evidence. While they were frustrated, they could not do anything about Black Star.
Nonetheless, the fact that they were Immortals was already a clue. After all, the entire universe now knew that the organization with the most Immortal members was the Black Star Army… The Feeney Civilization was only giving the three Universal Civilizations ammo for their conflict with the a.s.sociation. As long as this happened, their plan could be executed even without solid evidence.
Several days later, an announcement made by the Feeney Civilization in the Endless Nebulae caused a sensation in the galactic society.
The topic of the announcement was the Planet Burger Ma.s.sacre, where a large number of citizens were killed. The Feeney Civilization expressed strong condemnation for such a violent deed, stating they would find whoever was responsible and make them pay. Driven by those with motives, the message that it was a group of Immortals who were suspected to be members of the Black Star Army who attacked the colonial planet was spread quickly, attracting wide attention. If it was wanted criminals who attacked a colonial planet, this would be a police matter at most, and the galactic residents would not dwell on it much.
However, the big boss of the Beyond Grade A a.s.sociation was suspected to be involved in this. As a giant organization of the Lawful Faction, they violated the Peace Treaty and slaughtered civilians. At such a sensitive time, this matter immediately became a political issue and sparked intense public discussion!
That was especially so when the Feeney Civilization reported this to the Civilization Conference, crying and asking the three Universal Civilizations to pressure and question the Black Star Army, hoping to investigate and find out the truth. The matter became even bigger.
In the next few days, the three Universal Civilizations took the ammo from the Feeney Civilization, fully activating their propaganda machine, and started to verbally condemn the Black Star Army in all directions. At the same time, they increased the matter to involve the Beyond Grade A a.s.sociation too, strongly questioning the a.s.sociation’s purpose and its ‘justice’.
The Star System civilizations were within the protection range of the ‘Peace Treaty’. Such a violent act of slaughtering civilians on a colonial planet caused everyone to be enraged. Even the Super Star Cl.u.s.ter did not dare show support to the a.s.sociation at this point of time and remained quiet.
Emotions needed a place to vent. Driven by the advanced situations, although the Feeney Civilization only claimed that the brutes were suspected to be from the Black Star Army and had no proof, ordinary people did not care about that. They directly a.s.sumed that the Black Star Army was responsible for it. Their fear and hatred toward the Supers and Immortals that had been suppressed for a very long time turned into overwhelming verbal condemnations… After all, they had the most Immortals in the entire universe, so who else could they scold?
Han Xiao became the main target of the condemnation. With the advanced civilizations controlling the tempo, tons of civilians ignored what he did in the past and infinitely exaggerated the importance of this matter. They started to question why a leader who allowed his subordinates to do such horrible acts could receive the ‘Stuarts Peace Prize’ and the ‘Galaxy Medal’. How could he possibly have the right to be respected by the galactic society? There was no way the three Universal Civilizations were going to let such an amazing opportunity slip past. They started to go all out to damage Han Xiao’s image-as long as they could take away the ‘reputation amulet’ that they had once built for Han Xiao, they would have the ‘moral high ground’.
With the operations of the advanced civilizations, the Planet Burger ma.s.sacre became a fuse that intensified the conflicting emotions of the ordinary people and the Supers.
Countless galactic residents were worried. As ordinary people, no one wanted to be dragged into wars between Supers and die for no reason.
The influence this matter had on the ordinary people was that they supported the three Universal Civilizations’ pressure toward the Beyond Grade A a.s.sociation more and more. From their perspective, of course, they wished that all Supers could be strictly controlled by civilizations so that disasters would not fall onto them one day for no reason.
Suddenly, the people’s request to attack the Beyond Grade A a.s.sociation received more and more support… However, that was where it stopped. The three Universal Civilizations only used this opportunity to damage their reputation; they did not plan to make a move yet.
Faced with such aggressive accusations, the Black Star Army only made a simple announcement, saying it would investigate internally and only make an announcement when they come to a conclusion. Plus, the Black Star Army warned the Feeney Civilization not to accuse them without evidence. Then, they remained quiet no matter how noisy the outside world got.
…
In a desolate universe belt in the Endless Nebulae, the Guild of G.o.ds fleet was slowly flying Tons of guild pillars were standing and sitting around while looking at the forums casually, giggling with joy from time to time.
“President, look, our deeds have already been written into the Galaxy Chronicles. Our first guild kill has been acknowledged.”
Poseidon was overjoyed. Jupiter looked at the forums. The Guild of G.o.ds making the first guild kill of a Calamity Grade had filled the pages for many days and gained a ton of fame for the club. He was also rewarded by the upper echelons of the club because of this.
However, looking at the praise on the forums, Jupiter was not that happy but distracted.
Poseidon noticed and asked, “What’s wrong? You don’t look too happy.” Jupiter shook his head and said with a worried tone, “Don’t you all watch the galactic news? It’s a mess out there. We caused big problems for the army this time…” The emotions of the galactic society got worse day by day, and Jupiter was very worried. However, he did not regret it. After all, achieving the first guild kill was too amazing an achievement. He would probably make the same choice even if he went back in time. Only, he could not help but be worried about how the army would deal with this.
Those members who caused problems for the army in the past did not end up well, so he had examples to learn from. Although the Guild of G.o.ds did not do this on purpose, since the matter had become so big, Jupiter was unsure what the army’s stand was on this.
He had been waiting for the army to contact him all these days, but it never did, and he became more and more anxious.
Buzz!
Suddenly, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p’s communication system suddenly activated on its own, attracting everyone’s attention. Han Xiao’s remote projection suddenly appeared in front of them. “Army Commander?”
The various players present, including Jupiter, were all startled. They did not expect Black Star to come so suddenly.
Han Xiao scanned over everyone and stopped at Jupiter. With a poker face, he cut to the chase and said, “Don’t you owe me an explanation?”
Jupiter’s heart skipped a beat, and a resigned expression appeared on his face.
He knew he was in the wrong. What he did caused huge problems for his faction. Facing the questioning of the leader of his faction whom he had spent five versions with, he did not know what to say.
Seeing that he did not say anything, Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and purposely paused.
When he secretly saw that some of the guild players around started recording, he then continued
“You acted on your own without reporting to the army, which is why things escalated to this point, giving our enemies reasons to make the public condemn us. I’m very dissatisfied with this.”
Hearing this, their hearts sank.
However, Jupiter expected this. It would be weird of Black Star did not react to such a huge matter.
He sighed.
“… How will the army punish us?” Han Xiao looked around, viewing everyone’s expressions, snorted, and said, “I’ll be straightforward. This time, the army won’t give you any punishments. We’re all old comrades from the Planet Aquamarine, so just this time… I’ll settle it for you! But if there’s a next time, don’t blame me for following the rules!”
Everyone was stunned.
Seeing Han Xiao’s tone earlier, they were all mentally prepared to be punished by the faction. When they suddenly heard this, they froze.