April 25, 2082.

In the northern star field of Proxima Centauri, the war is intensifying. With the E-18 White Hole area as the starting point, the entire northern star field has gradually evolved into a chaotic hunting ground. In this hunting ground, the interstellar pirates from the Ultra Nebula regard the cargo ships that travel through the star field as fat prey, but while they bare their fangs, the mercenaries like war dogs see the interstellar pirates as a string of glittering bounty numbers. Artillery fire and distress signals have surpassed the commercial messages that filled public channels in the past, and have become the only voices that permeate the northern star field.

In the history of the Raymond Federation, this was the largest pirate attack in history. Therefore, even President Dawson, who is on the planet Afar in the federal capital, has been alarmed. Unable to avoid these pirates bringing greater economic losses to the Federation, Dawson, in the name of the president, ordered Governor Brandon to completely purge the pirates in Proxima Centauri.

At the same time, the mercenaries stationed in the Othello circle also ushered in the most glorious golden age in history. As pirate raids became more frequent, many merchants rooted in the Northern Star Domain began to follow the example of Anse El and offer bounties in the form of a chamber of commerce to those pirates who had ransacked them. Stimulated by the high bounties, a large number of mercenaries temporarily abandoned their military missions due to the huge profits and devoted themselves to this pirate extermination operation. While reaping the money, some mercenary groups with outstanding results have also greatly increased their popularity in Proxima Centauri, which has made their status in the hearts of the people have a qualitative change, and their popularity has even made them have some fanatical admirers. In addition, some casinos in Las Vegas have also begun to open markets, with the wins of several well-known mercenaries and the change of rankings as a betting item.

Now, the entire Proxima Centauri has descended into hysterical madness. After all, compared to the military's unseen expeditions, the turmoil in Proxima Centauri can stimulate people's nerves more. It's like a grand carnival, in which more exciting blood and carnage have replaced song and dance, and completely ignited the wild surnames in the hearts of the people of the Federation.

However, as the protagonist of this carnival ritual. Shepherd-like merchants and wolf-like interstellar pirates don't have a good time.

In order to deal with wild wolves, protect their flock. Shepherds had to spend money to feed the blood-hungry hounds, but even so, hungry wolves would still bite one or two sheep to death from time to time, and the cost of feeding hounds was increasing, which made many merchants face a shortage of funds. In addition, the price of goods in Proxima Centauri has also begun to rise due to the attack on cargo ships, and some low-income people have borne the brunt of the impact.

And the pirates who were hiding in the Ultra Nebula mines were not having a good time, and after tasting some sweetness at first, nightmares soon followed. Now, almost every attack they carried out was a death-defying attack, and the mercenaries that followed made it difficult for them to escape even if they succeeded in attacking a cargo ship. Therefore, they can only try to shorten the time to collect the loot in order to get out as soon as possible. However, while this allowed them to flee before the mercenaries arrived, the harvest was reduced by the time it took to provide for themselves, and there was no surplus to hand over to the tyrannical emperor.

Of the three, shepherds, wolves, and hounds, it seems to be the most nourished hounds ever had.

The high bounty offered by the Chamber of Commerce has turned these mercenaries who were originally carrying their heads into high-income people who can live in strange goods, and it is undoubtedly an easy job to sweep up a pirate gang composed of freedmen compared to carrying out military missions to deal with those skilled professional soldiers. In terms of the combat power of each mercenary army, as long as it does not run into the main force of Bloody Harry, there is basically no risk.

So, attracted by this low-risk, high-income offering, almost all mercenaries abandon low-paying military assignments. In the absence of mercenaries' special infiltration attacks, the military's expedition plan was greatly affected, and the original battle plan that expected to fully occupy the Pluto system in March has been completely lost. Until the end of April, the Republican [***] team is still putting up stubborn resistance around Pluto.

AT-056 ship.

Sitting in a comfortable chair on the bridge, Robin was sipping hot coffee while browsing the military's frontline battle reports learned from his status as a mercenary through the three-dimensional screen in front of him.

"I really didn't expect the situation to turn out like this. Hehe...... It was an unexpected surprise. Seeing that the Republican [***] team was still guarding Pluto, Robin couldn't help but wave his fist to vent the irrepressible joy in his heart.

"Speaking of which, it's all thanks to you, sir." Christine, who has become the head of the Ministry of Information, has the rank of major, but he is still Robin's secretary to the outside world, so this kind of information is currently done by him.

"My credit?" Christine's statement made Robin look at him in bewilderment.

"yes, if we hadn't come to Proxima Centauri out of the blue. Miss Martina had already been killed by Bloody Harry, and if the mission was successful, he would not have fled to the Ultra Nebula because he was wanted, so naturally there would be no current interstellar pirates. Without interstellar pirates, how could there be mercenaries leaving the battlefield and weakening the frontline combat effectiveness of the federal military? Connecting everything before and after, Christine high-fived excitedly: "Sir, these are actually planned by you a long time ago, right?" The perfect curve saves the country, it's amazing! ～”

"......" Christine's analysis made Robin stunned.

To be honest, if it weren't for Christine's reminder, even he wouldn't have realized that he had triggered it all. But now after careful analysis, it seems that everything is connected by him, and the changes in the whole situation seem to be controlled by him behind the scenes.

The same thing had happened once in Pluto, and Leona had said the same thing to him once. At the time, Leona believed that it was Robin's presence that allowed the Republic to win the first war with the Federation. It also made him realize that a small individual victory might trigger a butterfly effect, which would make the outcome of the entire battle develop completely differently.

However, as the person who caused all this, Robin did not feel as far-sighted as others thought. Those events that seem to have a turning point are actually done by him unconsciously, and more often than not, he is improvising, or making decisions according to his own intuition. Looking back now, those frenzied actions that were walking on thin ice led to such a miraculous result.

"This is what Jarvis calls a natural strategist?"

Recalling what Jarvis said of himself, Robin couldn't help but laugh bitterly. He doesn't think that he will be the kind of genius who is a genius and a genius that is rare in a century, in his opinion, he is just a little luckier.

Putting aside all these nonsense thoughts in his head, Robin turned his head and asked, "I heard about York this time?" Stanny also invited several other mercenaries to the meeting, which ones? ”

Right now, Robin is about to take the AT-056 to the headquarters of Stanley Mining Company, and is invited to participate in the meeting by York? An industry conference convened by the Mining Alliance, led by Stanley. Originally, Robin had no intention of attending such a meeting, but because he had saved York? Stanny's once, and the fact that Robin and Martina are now leading mining companies are now available, Robin has no choice but to take part of the time to go there in person, and plans to go to Bruno Prison to exchange a group of people after the meeting.

"There are B-class mercenaries Galactic Eagle, Iron Brotherhood, and C-class mercenaries Sabertooth Tigers, Wolves, Seraphs, ......" Christine took out the list of mercenaries who participated in the meeting and read them one by one.

"Oh? Are they all mercenaries who have a good relationship with us......" Robin rubbed his chin and thought to himself, guessing York? What the hell is Stanny up to in mind? He didn't believe York? It was a coincidence that Stanny had found all the mercenaries with whom he had a good relationship. Behind this, there must be some plan that he didn't know about.

And mercenaries like the Galactic Eagle have indeed maintained a good cooperative relationship with Robin in recent times, these mercenaries with a certain strength are attracted by the high bounties of pirates, and during the period of the joint campaign, although they are rivals with Robin's Charon mercenaries, they have had several experiences of teaming up to deal with the bloody Harry's main fleet. In the course of those encounters with the main fleet of Bloody Harry, if it were not for Robin's Charon mercenaries, the numbers of their troops would have been removed from the mercenary registry of the Federal Military Department. So out of gratitude, they have always had good intentions towards Robin's Charon mercenaries, and in the course of nearly a month of campaigning, they have also fought together many times. Even recently, Robin has begun to buy the prisoners of war they have captured from these mercenaries, so that these mercenaries, who are having a headache with capture, can not only dispose of the increasing number of prisoners, but also get some additional benefits.

"I want York? Stanley should have been in the mining area, after all, the meeting was held in the name of the Mining League. After a long pause, Christine pondered.

"Possibly, but the Ultra Nebula Mine? Hum...... That's where I'm destined to get my hands on it, how could I give it to him! ”

Robin snorted coldly and continued to browse the military information on the three-dimensional screen, while the silver AT-056 ship slowly approached the black-brown space station floating in the distant star field like a fish swimming in the deep black sea......

(To be continued)