The Almighty Ring

“Humility speaks volumes of one’s strength. As such, Mr. Jiang Fei, I’ve conceded to this match. You are strong. Naive, but strong.” Dawan laughed as he praised Jiang Fei. With that, Dawan completed what he had come to do, to test Jiang Fei’s character. That was not the end of his training because Domingo still had one last mission for Jiang Fei to participate in. Since it was going to be the last one, he wanted to let Jiang Fei earn as many available achievements as possible. Therefore, the mission he had prepared Jiang Fei for was going to be a little dangerous.

After Dawan left, Jiang Fei rested for an entire day before he continued his training in the training room. The results of his training were satisfying, but there was still room for Jiang Fei to grow. Jiang Fei recognized that and refused to stop training. Although he would not be able to grow much with the time he had left until his next mission, he could at least still grow stronger, no matter by how much, before he faced another powerful foe.

Three days later, in the real world, Jiang Fei finally exited the training room, and he was greeted by Domingo. Unlike previously, Domingo was not looking too happy. Grief would be the suitable word for what he was feeling right then as he was looking through the cost that Jiang Fei had been raking up for the past twenty-three months.

“Come, it is time for a mission,” said Domingo, slightly dejected as he put away the report of the training room’s operation costs.

“Understood,” said Jiang Fei simply. He packed up his stuff and left the training grounds with Domingo, who was still trying to hide his pain.

…

“All green across the board. We are ready for the warp jump on your command, Lieutenant,” said the same captain when Jiang Fei boarded the Corvette class ship.

“Take off,” said Domingo. Everyone had been ready and on standby for the past several hours. All that was left was Jiang Fei.

As the ships’ engines roared and left the planet’s atmosphere, Jiang Fei approached Domingo and asked, “Where are we heading to now?”

“I’ll brief you about that in a minute. This is going to be the last mission where I get to be your chauffeur. So, I had the thought to make things a little grander this time,” said Domingo.

The current mission’s destination was farther than they had ever been before. Even with faster-than-light traveling speeds, they took almost a day and a half to reach their destination. By noon of the next day, the fleet exited hyperspace and stopped at a binary-star planetary system.

“You see those two stars? They are actually in orbit with each other,” said Domingo while he pointed at the binary star system. Such an event was not unheard of as Jiang Fei had read about it when he was on Earth.

“Is that our target destination?” Jiang Fei asked.

“Correct. See the fourth planet from the stars, that is our target. We are going to raid a pirate base!” said Domingo.

“A pirate base, Sir?” said Jiang Fei.

The Valsalrian Army was already the strongest band of bandits in the known universe. Why would they need to attack another of their kind?

“Where is the wrong in that? They are pirates as well! No harm in stealing what has already been stolen!” said Domingo with a proud smile. To be honest, smaller pirate bases had always been a favourite target of the Valsalrian Army. Not only would they be eliminating potential rivals, but they would also be looting all their plundered goods. It was a logical target since looting a pirate’s lair would always be rewarding. As long as there were goods to steal, be it any thing or any person, the Valsalrians would always come knocking!

“Understood,” Jiang Fei acknowledged. He was unfamiliar with such an operation. Even though he would be killing people, he was more comfortable killing other criminals than innocents. At the very least, he would be making the universe a better place to live in by eliminating a few other pirates.

“Lieutenant! We are being targeted by the enemy on the planet’s surface! Brace! Brace!” the captain roared. Not two seconds later, the ship started to shake violently as they were showered with bombardments from the planet’s pirate base. Domingo was not having it. This ship of his had only just finished its regular maintenance. The paint on the ship’s hull had not yet set in and was already being scraped!

“Return fire! Now!” he roared.

“Aye, Lieutenant!” said the captain. With the order to attack laid out, the captain then took command of the other ships in the fleet.

“Focus fire on my target. Target Area A3 and B4. You may use the Mega Particle Beam Cannons.”

“Incoming fleets of drones, Sir!”

“Engage Anti-Missile turrets and focus the Mega Particle Beam Cannons on the planet’s surface.

“All ships are to focus on the incoming fleet of drones. The Corvette is to focus on the planet’s surface!”

…

Exchanges of commands and reports filled the pilot’s cockpit. Jiang Fei took to the side and peeked out from the observation window. Not long after, he could see the incoming fleet drones with his naked eyes, and a shower of rapid-firing beams came from the fleet he was part of.

“We have eyes on the enemy’s fleet, Sir!” the captain reported.

“Change of targets. Disable the enemy’s ships! Leave at least one of them afloat,” said Domingo.

The detected fleet of ships that the captain and Domingo discussed were too far for Jiang Fei to see with the naked eye. However, with a powerful optical camera, he could see the ships’ formation from the battle station’s monitor.

The enemy’s fleet consisted of only smaller Cruiser class ships. That was their largest ship. In all honesty, Domingo’s fleet was already considered small as the most powerful ship was only of a Corvette class. So, in comparison, the enemy’s fleet was just too… trashy. They had good weapons on board their ships and engines that granted them high mobility in space. Their one weakness was their ships’ integrity. Compared with the Corvette class ships as well as the other Cruisers, the enemy ships may as well have been made of paper. They would easily be crushed with a blast from an auxiliary particle beam cannon.

To avoid being destroyed, the pirate fleet was in complete disarray, without any formation. That was a sign of incompetent leadership, which only made destroying them easy. Albeit being unpredictable, rapid firing allowed Domingo’s Cruisers to shoot them down easily. In no time, a good number of the enemy’s Cruisers had been shot down. Some of them were not even destroyed! Their engines had only suffered from minor damages by stray shots, yet they were propelled out of the planet’s orbit toward the binary star system where they burned to a crisp.

“Captain, we are being hailed,” said an operator from the battle station.

“Lieutenant, would you like to take this call?” said the captain. Taking command of a battle was still within his jurisdiction but communicating with the enemy required higher authority, which was in Domingo’s reign.

“Broadcast the call on the main screen and cease all fire momentarily,” said Domingo.

“Aye, Lieutenant,” said the operator.

A picture of a large being with the head of a squid and a beard that consisted of tiny wriggling tentacles was projected on the main screen.

“I am the commander of Torrington Base, Commander Gararizz. Why are you attacking us?!”

Jiang Fei’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the familiar appearance. However, after he kept quiet to focus on the enemy’s face, he noticed that the enemy was not at all the same as a Namekian. While Namekians had a similar squid-like appearance, they possessed a humanoid body structure. Meanwhile, their current enemies were completely squid-like.

“Heh, we are the Valsalrian Army!” said Domingo with a very certain gravitas to his voice. He did not bother to explain his actions because the name “Valsalrian Army” was enough to explain his presence in their planetary system!

It was a fact. The Valsalrian Army was famous even amongst other bandits and pirates. The name itself would strike fear and resentment in anyone who knew of their existence. It was only natural since the Valsalrian Army had a knack of targeting others with a similar career!

As expected, once the enemy heard Domingo utter those two words, everyone in the main ship froze in fear.

“Heh,” Domingo scoffed. He loved to see that reaction before the real fight began.

“I will only present this offer to you once. Surrender on our terms or… I don’t think I need to explain what we are capable of,” said Domingo as he turned his back to the screen.

“Urgh…” the enemy, Gararizz grunted. He knew well that his fleet would never stand a chance against any Valsalrian army, but the base had been built for as long as ten years, and the mass of treasure he had plundered throughout his career was being kept there. To ask him to surrender… was to ask him to give up his life’s work.

“Boss! We’ve been compromised! We should just give them all that we have! Who knows, we may even be the only pirates who have ever survived and destroyed a Valsalrian fleet!” said another.

“We could also be one of the million planets they have plundered! So what if we win this fight, there will be another fleet! We will be hunted down!” said Gararizz. Even though his words opposed what his subordinate said, he had made up his mind to fight back!