A small team of Federation Army members searched the interior of the s.p.a.ceship after blowing up the Grey-faced Buzzard's hatch. Of course, they ended up finding nothing-no one was hiding in it and no useful clues were found.
Gu Ding and the others had packed up their belongings and stashed their valuables in the Inventory ring. Biggie even packed all the pots and pans in the kitchen to prevent the Army from smashing things during their search.
Most of the other teams did not find anything. After all, the Army was too aggressive earlier. Many people saw trouble and packed up to hide in the city before the s.p.a.ceships even docked.
The city the port belonged to was called Bartow. It was the largest city in Great Divinity with a population of more than twenty-four million.
It was undoubtedly difficult to find a few Interstellar Pirates in a population of more than twenty-four million, the same went for Gu Ding and his friends. Thanks to Neptune, they were invisible to all the video and camera equipment in Bartow.
At the port, one after another, the teams would report their search results-only three teams found people hiding in the s.p.a.ceships. They naively expected that Port Authority would not allow the Army to force the s.p.a.ceships open. Some even clamored they would complain about Port Authority and the Army to the federal court when they were caught.
Those who were arrested were mostly those who could not escape in time. They were still observing when they saw the Army's s.p.a.ceship land. They had only reacted when the Army showed its manpower, but by then it was already too late.
The speed of thirty mechs was comparable to that of a Rank-8 Gene Body martial arts pract.i.tioner. Most of the Interstellar Pirates were unable to evade them.
Sharp was not too pleased after hearing the results because none of the people were on their list of wanted fugitives. For example, up-and-coming newcomer teams such as Gu Ding's teams and Bart's teams, as well as some powerful older teams.
“Well, I didn't expect to catch those guys so easily.” Walter who was standing beside him was not surprised, he even gave a faint smile. “This is only the first stage of the pursuit…”
“I realized that this time, things have turned out more interesting than I antic.i.p.ated. My biggest regret was that I couldn't meet Biggie in person…” Emily looked like she was in her early twenties. As a Rank-10 Gene Body powerhouse, she could live until she's at least eight hundred years old. Her youthful appearance would remain until she was three hundred years old before aging slowly.
“Emily, Biggie's my target. I told you before we came here. You can deal with him all you want after I hunt him down, but I don't want you to intervene in the hunt.” Sharp frowned. He had finally met another Rank-10 Gene Body swordsman, of course, he refused to let him go easily. He had only ever encountered a similar opponent once in Border River, and that battle was a truly challenging one.
“I didn't say I was going to s.n.a.t.c.h this from you. In fact, if you lose, I'm not helping.” As she was also an Army general, Emily could care less about the others-she had never been afraid of Sharp who was the strongest.
They had worked together for a few years. Sharp knew about her temper and said nothing about her reply.
“Sister Emily, our plan requires your help in capturing Biggie. His actual combat effectiveness remains unknown to this day. It's a huge obstacle for this operation…” Before Walter could finish, he was interrupted by two people at the same time.
“I'm not attacking!”
“I don't need help!”
Walter did not expect to encounter this. He froze for a moment and changed the subject. “Based on our intel, Gu Ding and his team will be the hardest to capture. Not only do they have outstanding combat effectiveness, but Gu Ding's hacking abilities could also cause us huge difficulty. He'll definitely be erasing all their traces. It'll be impossible to find them through standard surveillance systems.”
Just then an Army senior colonel appeared. “Sir, bad news. Someone tampered with our s.p.a.ceship's pa.s.sword, we can't get in, and the people in it can't get out. We've checked on the other s.p.a.ceships; they're also experiencing the same issue.”
Sharp leaped onto the Golden Eagle. He pressed his palm on the hatch, but it did not respond. He tried entering the pa.s.sword again, but the system stated that the pa.s.sword was wrong. He leaped off the Golden Eagle and waved his hand. “Get the pa.s.sword cracker and fix this!”
“Gu Ding did this?” Emily, who was beside him could not think of anyone else besides Gu Ding who would do such a thing.
“Who else?” Sharp said peevishly.
“This is child's play.” Emily covered her mouth and laughed. “One of the teams earlier blew up the hatch to their s.p.a.ceship, that's probably why they retaliated that way. It's alright though. It's nothing more than a prank. If it were me, I'd definitely choose to activate all the Army s.p.a.ceships' self-destruct system.”
Walter's forehead broke out in cold sweat. He immediately said, “Big sister, don't say that. They must be watching us through the surveillance system. How else would they have known that their s.p.a.ceship's hatch was blown off? If they heard what you just said and actually do so. We'll suffer a lot of damage.”
“They must have a death wish to even consider doing that!” Sharp said with his eyes wide open. “The four generals will surely join forces to hunt him down. They'll find him even if he had entered the Border River-the marshal himself might even take action. In fact, His Highness The Lord might even contact the Faye Cosmic Nation for help.”
Gu Ding and his crew heard their conversation. They knew the consequences of something like this.
“The Golden Eagle's pa.s.sword was changed and there's no place to detain these captured bounty criminals. Let's send them to the local prison first.” Neptune's prank brought about some changes whereby Walter was now forced to relocate the detainees.
“They changed the detention camp to the local prison, he he…” Neptune waited patiently. When the surveillance video showed that the bounty criminals were halfway there, he spread the news.
“The Army s.p.a.ceships malfunctioned, and the bounty criminals will be transported to the local Federation Prison.”
It was already too late when Walter saw the news. Several teams of Interstellar Pirates intercepted the convoy. They vented their anger on the transport troops, attacking them and releasing everyone who was caught.
“The transportation vehicle was hijacked. There were heavy casualties and all prisoners were released.” When this news was sent to Walter's intelligent wrist.w.a.tch, Walter's heart instantly shriveled. He did not expect that these Interstellar Pirates would be so bold as to hijack the Army's cars. He did not even expect that Gu Ding and his crew dared to provoke the Army publicly.
“That guy has got a hold of our every move now. Let's destroy all surveillance near the port.” Sharp suggested.
“It's no use. With his current hacking abilities, I'm afraid he can very well hack into our intelligent wrist.w.a.tches. Even if we destroyed the surveillance at the port or turned off our intelligent smart.w.a.tches, he'd always find a way to get the information he wants. If he wants to see, let him see then.” Walter seemed to understand that Neptune's surveillance ability was pretty much unavoidable. He offered his opinion. “In a game of chess, there's a method called unravel, you let the opponent know your every move without compromising your chances of victory. We can do the same. They won't be able to stop us, even if they know our every move. Let's just proceed as planned. Don't let a little setback ruin our original plan.”
Sharp nodded after hearing his statement. In fact, now that he thought about it, Gu Ding and his crew would at most cause a disturbance in his mission, it would not stop them from doing what they came to do. Those who escaped were really not that smart, it would not be difficult to recapture them.
A look of approval flashed over Emily's eyes. She had never worked with the young chief of staff. Occasionally, she would hear some stories about him-they all praised him as if he were a G.o.d. She had always been wary and skeptical of exaggerated opinions like this. That was why she did not favor Walter at the beginning. However, judging from his comments, he was indeed intellectually gifted.
“This guy, Walter, was certainly not simple-he managed to steady himself so quickly.” Gu Ding could not help admiring.
“Hey, don't compliment the enemy!” Liliath objected.
“I'm just stating facts, he's indeed amazing.” Gu Ding said and poked Biggie who was beside him with his elbow, hoping he would back him up.
Biggie laughed and stepped back, a blank expression on his face-not intending to express any opinions.
“What you're doing is boosting their spirits while undermining our morale.” Lilith rolled her eyes at Gu Ding.
“I really want to know their next move. Since they're no longer worried about us, their next move must be a big one.” Gu Ding guessed that they must be extremely confident in their ability to execute their plan if they dared to let them know about their next move.
Walter did something on his wrist.w.a.tch. About ten minutes later, he projected a piece of information in front of himself. It showed the matches between the images shot by the surveillance equipment on this planet and the pictures of the bounty criminals. In no time, over fifty bounty criminals were located.
“Neptune, can't you do something?” Gu Ding asked while watching the projection.
“No, I just tried. He activated a Level S access control encryption on his wrist.w.a.tch. It's the highest level of encryption in Skynet. If I crack it forcibly, Skynet will notice.” This frustrated Neptune.
After determining the location of over fifty bounty criminals, Walter a.s.signed tasks to the fifty-three teams. Each team would travel to a certain point to capture a bounty criminal. Each team consists of ten people. The team leaders were all Rank-8 Gene Body powerhouses who were at least of the rank major general.
After everything was arranged, Walter looked over the nearest surveillance equipment. The corners of his mouth curved upwards, forming a devious expression.
