The mineral reserves had no value to the pirates. This type of loot was too heavy and hard to sell. However, unfortunately, the trading of processed mineral products was very profitable. Moreover there was a batch of resources from the Ice Spear City right here. It was worth a lot.
Obviously for the Cronode Family, this wasn't significant at all. However since they were the pirates now, they would have to rob something.
The latest plan was to send a small portion of the army to attack the Ice Spear City. Following which, the Cronode Family would lead a group of brilliant and valiant warriors in and defeat the pirates while protecting the lives and property of the citizens in Ice Spear City. As to the mineral industry base being robbed, that was also inevitable. After all, the people were more important. In addition, Shien's and Redington's outstanding performance would also be remembered. Not only would the Elite Academy reward them, the Hail Cloud Alliance would too. Coincidentally, Shien and Redington were both from the Hail Cloud Alliance. Wouldn't this make them the idols of the new generation?
The plan couldn't keep up with the changes as the changes always triumphed over the plan.
Shien had also not expected things to turn out this way. As for the incident of Snow Li, it was even simpler. Snow Li had led a group of people to defend a place. All he had to do was to send people to capture Snow Li alive. There should always be some casualties in a cross fire.
Everything was within the control of Shien and Redington. The normal soldiers in the base did not have many objections. This was partly due to the influence of the Cronode Family. On the other hand, it was also because these students had come from strong backgrounds. There wouldn't be a problem for them to go up against 10 times their own number. In addition, the main person in charge was also missing. The typical soldiers wouldn't care about these. They were hoping that with Cronode being on Aisbotan, the reinforcement team would arrive quickly. After all, he was the young master of the family and there was no room for any errors. If the reinforcement team had arrived late, he might be killed.
Snow Li, Ai Xiaolu and the rest had arrived one after another at the mecha warehouse. The other students were all here too. What were stored here was the signature regular mecha of Hail Cloud Alliance, the Ice Wolf V. Beast type mecha was very suitable for battling on an ice field.
Just a while ago, they had received the news that Tank City had been raided. The actual scenario was still unclear. The Ice Spear City had already become a desolate city now with connections to the outside world being cut off. Based on the news from Tank City, the enemy's scale was a column of mecha. This would also mean that there were at least a thousand mobile warriors. They were highly discipline with tight formations and were definitely not some stray soldiers. They looked more like regular soldiers.
Everyone was shocked by the news. If it was only a hundred or two, the Elite Academy would definitely be able to take them down easily. However, if there was an entire troop with mecha, this would be a tough job.
"Are we going to defend the Ice Spear City tenaciously?" asked Cal Yingmeng weakly. Not all the students of Elite Academy weren't afraid of dying. It was especially so when the difference in strength was so distinct. It was clear that no matter if it was the interstellar pirates or any other things, they weren't here for them. There wasn't a need to clash with them head on.
Everyone looked at Shien Cronode. Shien was also a little surprised. These people had not followed the plan and this had caused him a headache. He knew beforehand that these desperate refugees wouldn't play by the rules. He also had to be careful or he might lose more if he tumbled. No matter how much wealth or authority they had, it wouldn't be more important than one's life.
"We should be defending the base tenaciously instead of the Ice Spear City. The Ice Spear City is too huge and doesn't have anything important. Our numbers aren't a lot with only about 100 including the remaining soldiers. We wouldn't have any chance of victory going against the enemy in battle. Moreover, they even have heavy weapons!"
The intention of Shien was clear. That was to give up the Ice Spear City and defend the base with their lives. After all, the military base at least had energy shields and they wouldn't be pulled down by the burdensome city. If they really could not hold on, they could even retreat.
"Shien, you seemed to have forgotten that we were students from the Elite Academy. We are reserve soldiers but we are still considered to be soldiers. Since when have you heard of soldiers giving up on their citizens so that they could escape?!" said Ai Xiaolu coldly. "Although the enemies' numbers are higher, we are elite warriors. If we are afraid of some disorderly crowd, what are we?"
After listening to Ai Xiaolu, the rest had their fighting spirit ignited. Although the enemies' numbers were greater, they were the elites from Academy X. What was there to be afraid of?
"Student Xiaolu, I can understand your thoughts and our responsibilities. However, we have understood from the intelligence sent by Tank City that the other party was a complete column of interstellar pirates. They had broken through the defenses of Tank City in less than 10 minutes. This would imply that they have heavy weapons. If we were to face them head on, only death would await us. As a member of the Elite Academy, we can't make sacrifices in vain and just have brute courage." said Redington.
If there were heavy weapons, they might not be useful at all. The key thing here was that there wasn't anyone here that commanded the respect of everyone. Even those with some fame had conflicts between themselves. The others were even more unsure of what they should do.
"I had a thought. If the enemies were interstellar pirates, their aim should be raiding and robbing. Therefore they would definitely attack the Ice Spear City soon. I believe that the disruption of signals from Aisbotan must have been discovered by the Hail Cloud Alliance. They would definitely make their response and therefore the time left for the pirates would not be much. We could do a two pronged counterattack together with Ice Spear City!" said Snow Li. "The frontline of Ice Spear City could attract the attention of the heavy weapons as we flank from the back and the sides to attack their formation."
Ai Xiaolu who was standing at the side immediately clapped and praised the idea. "With our skills and mobility, we don't deserve to be students of the Elite Academy if we can't even suppress a group of pirates. I'm from the Hail Cloud Alliance and will live or die together with Aisbotan. I will never bow down to the pirates!"
AI Xiaolu's words were decisive and she was able to cause similar feelings to resonate amongst quite a number of people around who were from Hail Cloud Alliance. If the other party had the absolute advantage, it would be inevitable to think about preserving oneself. However the other party did not have an overwhelming advantage in numbers.
If they were to cower at this moment, they might had to do so for the rest of their lives.
Shien frowned. He didn't expect Ai Xiaolu to be so instigative. Just when he was about to say something, the other students had already started roaring.
"That's right! This is the real practical experience. We have trained just for such a moment!"
In an instant, those who chose to fight overwhelmed those who wanted to hide. The plan was also simple. Those remaining soldiers in the base would be responsible for defending the Ice Spear City while the students of the Elite Academy would be split into 4 teams and moved out of the city's boundary to engage in guerrilla warfare with the enemies.
As long as it wasn't a head-on battle but small harassment, it was still hard to say who the prey really were.
Seeing that the main situation had been settled, Shien and Redington found that it wasn't a good time for them to say more. If they continued acting this way, suspicions would definitely be raised. If news of someone from the Cronode Family and an expert of the Xuan Grade Class 1 were afraid of pirates were to spread, they wouldn't be able to survive in the future.
Snow Li, Ai Xiaolu, Redington and Shien each led 9 people. The Ice Wolf V mecha was definitely not foreign to any Ability users with "Ice" attribute.
Snow Li had already entered the mecha and instantly made a connection with the G material. As the mech interface started up, she took a deep breadth. This wasn't time for her to think about Wang Zheng. All she hoped for now was for Wang Zheng to be safe. What she had to face now was war. There was a sentence from Ai Xiaolu that was right. As someone from the Hail Cloud Alliance, she definitely had to protect her homeland!
Rescue?
Shien Cronode had a headache. Under regular circumstances, it would take at most 5-6 hours for the Hail Cloud Alliance's space fleet to discover that something was wrong. However the issue was that the Cronode Family had already been devising about this plan for a long time. It would take at least a few days. The situation was a little beyond control now. He wouldn't want to die in his own plan.
The other party were true pirates. However… they weren't just any ordinary pirates but the DK pirate crew. This was an existence that would even rob the Arbiter Commerce group. There were indeed just a column of them. However their strength were even more brutal and violent than regular soldiers.
Shien Cronode did not care about what others would do. He didn't intend to seek his own death. Once they were in a crossfire, guns and bullets wouldn't recognize the targets.
Shien felt a little bottled up. He had originally thought that he had reached an agreement with the DK Pirate Crew and the other party would follow the rules a little. However based on the current situation, the other party were still pirates at their core.
He was being a little too naïve. Originally, Tank City wasn't part of the target of raids and robbery. The Cronode Family didn't want to completely destroy Aisbotan as they would have suffered a huge loss from it too. However, it would seem that these pirates didn't care about all these.
The DK Pirate Crew probably knew about it. The Cronode Family had also refrained from taking more actions in fear of the pirates. They might even defend the DK Pirate Crew vehemently to help them stopped the regular soldiers from discovering about them. Otherwise, if the pirate crew was captured, the Cronode Family wouldn't have a great outcome too.
Shien had analysed the situation calmly and made his decision. No matter what the DK Pirate Crew did, all he needed to do now was to wait and observe the changes.