Chapter Eleven: Are You the Reinforcements Summoned by the Worm?

I wonder if anyone has ever experienced this: the more desperately you search for something, the less likely you are to find it; and the more you wish to avoid something, the more it seems to parade itself right before your eyes. In any case, Liu Shaoyu was in the throes of precisely this predicament. Retracing his steps to where he had previously encountered the patrol squad of bugs, he scoured the asteroid’s surface, going round and round, yet the object of his search remained elusive.

Should he just fire a missile or something? Liu Shaoyu mused inwardly. As he pondered the surprisingly poor vigilance of these bugs, an anomalous energy fluctuation finally appeared on his light screen, emanating from the asteroid.

“Found you,” Liu Shaoyu murmured, excitement flickering in his voice.

“Come on, little bug, let’s see how you like my cannon…” He deftly operated the controls, launching a ground missile from his battlecruiser. This Iron Cavalry-class warship was less than a hundred meters long, armed only with a handful of small missile turrets.

A plume of fire blossomed from the planet’s crimson surface. Most planets in the Fengta system bore this same hue, their crusts rich in red metallic elements and lacking any atmosphere—habitable only for these oxygen-independent bugs.

No sooner had the attack landed than the bugs identified the perpetrator. To be struck in one’s own lair was an affront no bug could tolerate—especially not the mother bug, who had been dining when rudely interrupted. Infuriated, she rallied her swarm of hundreds of thousands, sending them surging forth in a wave. Liu Shaoyu, seeing this, could only marvel: “Well, aren’t I popular?” Without further ado, he poured all power into the thrusters and fled at maximum speed.

“All capacitors to engines, initiate overdrive!” This overdrive could nearly double the ship’s speed, though only for a limited time. Afterward, the engines were essentially ruined, and for the duration, the massive power draw would render the attack systems inoperative.

“Set destination—enable autopilot.” Liu Shaoyu swiftly programmed the coordinates, aiming for the suspicious asteroid he had just identified as a possible pirate base. Then, with lightning speed, he slipped into his mecha.

No, you’re not mistaken—at overdrive velocity, a collision would shatter the ship. The young Liu Shaoyu had no intention of perishing alongside a pirate base. As the ship barreled into an asteroid belt, Liu Shaoyu kicked open the hatch with his mecha, activated his stealth screen, and plunged into the belt.

The ship itself continued on, unmanned…

If you happened to be in the Zosel system of the Fengta star cluster, you would have witnessed an Iron Cavalry warship careening desperately ahead, pursued by a frenzied swarm of Fengta bug soldiers.

Within the asteroid belt, Liu Shaoyu’s mecha clung to the surface of a rock. He had shut down all power-consuming systems except the stealth screen. Now, more than ever, he prayed for the bugs’ combat prowess to live up to their reputation; with only his mecha, there was no hope of making a jump back home.

Meanwhile, elsewhere…

Just recently, the third-ranking leader of the pirate faction, Kimos, had returned to base in a somber mood. Intelligence had revealed that the Galactic Fleet was transporting rare metals from the distant Zhuomula system. En route, they had already been ambushed, leaving only two-thirds of their escort frigates. Now, at the border stargate of the Rouynil system, they were about to traverse a notoriously unstable gateway. Such a gate was perilous—fleets passing through risked serious damage. Yet, given the precious cargo and depleted escorts, the fleet chose this hazardous shortcut over the safer, system-by-system hop.

Upon learning this, the pirates dispatched Kimos, their third-in-command, to ambush at the gate. Sure enough, the Galactic Fleet emerged with only half its escort frigates remaining, and even their three carriers had suffered damage. Yes, three carriers—the fleet had originally dispatched four for this mission. At that moment, Kimos had considered fleeing, but the fleet detected him: “You never show when we look for you, but now you walk right into our hands. Even at half strength, we can still crush you.” Thus, Kimos had no choice but to order his flagship to retreat, sending the escort ships to their doom.

The rest, as they say, is history.

This sortie netted no loot and cost Kimos his flagship—a blow that left him seething.

But was the pirates’ intelligence truly so poor? Not at all—they had been set up. In truth, pirates were a constant across all known star systems, but they were far from united; their internal dynamics were complicated, but that is a tale for another time.

Kimos had barely warmed his seat when the base’s alarm blared, startling him. Had they pursued him all the way here? But he quickly regained his composure—after all, this was the bugs’ home turf. He doubted the timid Galactic Fleet would dare follow.

He was right, but what he hadn’t anticipated was that the threat wasn’t from the Galactic Fleet, but from his “old neighbors”—the Fengta system bugs, doing a little housekeeping of their own.

“Alert! Alert! Automated countermeasures engaged. Lowering stealth field,” the base’s AI broadcast in an alien tongue.

That did it—Kimos could sit still no longer and hurried to the command center.

The sight that greeted him chilled his already pale face further. Kimos, once a prince of a star-kingdom in the Centaurus Cluster, had been exiled after a failed bid for the throne. He had turned to piracy, first alone, then in partnership with a like-minded “second brother.” Together, they had plotted ever grander heists, sealing their fates as outlaws.

Kimos was no stranger to adversity, but the sheer number of bugs now confronting him was overwhelming. Pirates excelled at hit-and-run tactics; a stand-up fight of this scale was almost unheard of. This base was little more than a storage depot. In thirty seconds, Kimos made his decision: this was untenable—he had to flee.

After issuing orders for a desperate defense, the pirate third-in-command once again became a fugitive. An acceleration track hidden in the nearby asteroid belt offered a means of escape—these tracks enabled ships to make ultra-fast jumps to special coordinates. As long as he reached the belt, he’d be safe. He transmitted vital documents to the main pirate base, wiped the local database, and prepared to make his exit.

Back with the bugs, the mother bug, still fuming from her interrupted meal, directed her forces in hot pursuit. Yet, their quarry escaped with remarkable speed, and just as they were about to catch up, he vanished. Sensitive to spatial anomalies, the bugs immediately suspected someone was hiding in their territory, infuriating them further—how dare someone build a space station in their domain? Before they could vent their anger, a station’s stealth field dropped, revealing itself in the cosmic void. An orbital cannon immediately vaporized a swath of bug soldiers.

The mother bug was livid: she hadn’t even started retaliating, yet was already taking fire. Without further hesitation, she ordered her entire force to obliterate the enemy.

The space station's orbital cannon was no pushover. It rained relentless fire upon the bug troops. Ultimately, though, the bugs prevailed—albeit at some cost—reducing the pirate storage depot to cosmic rubble.

Ordinarily, the mother bug would have ordered the battlefield to be cleared. The Fengta bugs could replenish themselves by consuming metal, transforming it into a unique, incredibly hard substance that blocked detection signals—a must-have for killing, travel, or domestic needs. This material formed a tough shell on their bodies, which was continuously renewed through feeding. The discarded shell could then be devoured by more advanced bugs to evolve into warships. Thus, the entire Fengta system was cloaked in a dark red hue. As Liu Shaoyu would put it, the bug soldiers resembled spicy little crayfish.

But this time, the mother bug was on a mission and in a hurry. After dealing with the space station, she led her fleet away in a huff.

The pirate depot’s cargo containers were now scattered across the cosmos.

Meanwhile, Kimos, who had painstakingly made his way to the asteroid belt in hopes of finding the acceleration track, was suddenly discovered by Liu Shaoyu.

In fact, Liu Shaoyu had noticed Kimos from the moment he launched his escape pod. Such pods had a single purpose: escape. They carried no weapons, and were barely larger than Earth Federation mechas.

Liu Shaoyu was delighted. He didn’t know who was inside, but anyone so eager to flee had to be someone important.

As the escape pod passed the asteroid where Liu Shaoyu lay hidden, he quietly followed.

The escape pod had only one hatch, most of its space taken up by the engine—no modifications, just pure functionality: escape and nothing else.

Liu Shaoyu’s mecha crept up behind, then abruptly accelerated and clamped onto the pod’s hull.

Startled, Kimos activated his holo-radar and spotted the mecha. He knew then that he was truly doomed.

“Oh, my royal father, have the bugs invited reinforcements?”