Earth Era

EZ Aquarius galaxy.

After human civilization left here, the concealment strategy was cancelled, and the spacecraft gathered here finally opened the communication channel, turned on the lighting and various equipment. After being in the darkness for an unknown length of time, the "slaves" who had been tortured to the point of madness, including Evans, finally saw the light again. The temperature maintenance system also started to work, and the cabin was finally not so cold. However, under the envelope of warm air, the smell of various excrements and waste in the cabin became even greater, almost to the point of making people faint.

Three more companions died. After all, they... couldn't wait for the moment when the light came.

But soon Evans felt that dying in the dark might not be a bad luck. Dead people cannot feel pain, but people who are still alive still suffer under torture.

Like other surviving slaves, Evans began to have to engage in the most painful, tiring, and dangerous jobs under the threat of guns and various horrific instruments of torture. It was the slaves who repaired the outer armor of the spacecraft. It was the Evans who drove the shabby airship that seemed to be falling apart to transport supplies between different spaceships. It was also the Evans who braved the cold or high temperatures to repair the core components of the spacecraft - —That was a job that only robots could do, but now it also falls on slaves.

There are not only high temperatures or severe cold, but also various disease-causing or fatal rays and radiation. As a result, many people's skin ulcerated, their eyes went blind, and their bones became necrotic... But the work must continue to be done. Because if you do it, you can survive and not die immediately. If you dare to refuse to work, you will be brutally tortured to death immediately, and then the body will be thrown into space. During this time, Evans has seen this happen several times.

Through all the pain and suffering, Evans gritted his teeth and persevered. Every time when Evans felt that he was about to lose his support, his wife or children would appear in his mind, and Evans would tell himself that he must persevere and return to human civilization... …

Compared with the tortured life of slaves, the life of those robbers was much better. They had fine wine, delicious food, and young and pretty women plundered from who knows where for their entertainment. Of course, there are three levels of bandits, but even the lowest level bandits live a much better life than slaves.

After staying here for a long time and deliberately collecting information, Evans also knew a little bit about the bandits.

They were originally interstellar pirates. When the robot crisis came, they returned to human civilization through various means and escaped with human civilization.

But there is order in human civilization, and everyone's behavior is subject to legal or moral constraints, and a material distribution system is implemented within the civilization. Even if the pirates accumulated huge wealth before, they have no way to do it here. He was living a life of drunkenness and dreams as before. Therefore, under the organization of several pirate leaders, the pirates planned for half a year, and finally successfully executed the escape plan, returned to their old business, and became pirates again.

This information put Evans' mind at ease a little. Since you are a pirate, you must rob things. There are no objects or merchant ships in this empty starry sky that can be robbed. The only ones that can be targeted for robbery are human civilization. In other words, pirates exist dependent on human civilization. Then it is obvious that they will quietly follow the fleeing fleet without leaving too far. This also means that I still have a chance to return to human civilization.

Things progressed just as Evans expected. After the human civilization's escape fleet was far enough away from the pirate fleet and the pirate fleet was repaired, the pirates finally set off. They followed quietly about ten light days behind the fleeing fleet, maintaining the same course as the fleeing fleet.

Evans has been looking forward to the battle between the pirate fleet and the military warship, because that means that the pirate fleet has been noticed by human civilization, and then with the power of human civilization, the destruction of this pirate fleet will only be It's a matter of time, and I can return to human civilization. But what was unexpected was that the pirate fleet always followed from a distance, carefully concealing itself. They even stopped robbing - a few days ago, there was a ship that happened to pass near the pirate station area. I don't know if it was a scientific research ship or some kind of spaceship. The spaceship was obviously full of various supplies, but the pirates They just watched the spaceship pass by them. The pirates did nothing but try their best to hide themselves from being noticed.

Evans' doubts were eliminated one day later. Perhaps because he worked hard and never resisted, Evans gained a certain degree of trust from the pirates, so Evans was assigned to do other easier jobs.

So Evans saw many plants blooming with evil and monster flowers in a large spaceship. That's...poppy. Not only were there poppies, but Evans gradually came to know that there were also complete drug manufacturing factories, arms factories, and various manufacturing workshops that he didn’t know what they were among the other spaceships.

As long as it's illegal and profitable, it's all in the pirate fleet. Every few days, a pirate spaceship disguised as a merchant ship or transport ship will set off from here, loaded with drugs, arms and other things, and return to human civilization with the cooperation of those spies who are still hidden within human civilization. These things will be sold through various black channels, and then exchanged for food, energy, precision equipment and other things that the pirates urgently need, and then transported to the pirate fleet. Moreover, every time those merchant ships return, they will bring back many items. Hundreds, sometimes dozens, of people came back.

Once, Evans saw them even bringing back several scrapped military combat craft. Of course, those combat spacecraft also became the property of the pirates after being repaired.

Evans knew that even within human civilization, pirates still have a huge influence. I don't know how many high-ranking officials or military figures have been corrupted and attracted by the pirates, otherwise the pirates' actions would not have been so smooth. Together, these people have formed a huge interest network. They are like tumors in the human body, sucking nutrients from the body unscrupulously.

In this case, the pirates certainly don't need to rob anymore. It's too unskilled. Not only is the rate of return low, but the risk is also high - by the way, what kind of robbery can have a rate of return as good as this one? Business model?

But the pirates were not without their troubles. The fact that there is no threat to human civilization does not mean that there are no threats to other places. The pirates' business model has a high rate of return and low risk. This is undoubtedly a good way. Precisely because it is easier to follow, this group is definitely not the only one who can think of this. pirate.

In fact, the second group of pirates appeared soon, and their strength was even stronger than when this group of pirates had just escaped. As a result, the two groups of pirates inevitably clashed. Evans didn't know the specific reason for the conflict, but he thought it was just a matter of competing for the market, competing for resources, and expanding their territory.

It wasn't until the conflict occurred that Evans knew the reason why the pirates had taken huge risks and even dared to expand their capabilities even if the military scrapped spaceships. Expanding strength...not to fight against the military, but to fight against his own kind and other pirates. When the pirates just escaped, the pirate leader had already thought about what would happen now and was fully prepared for it. From this point of view, the pirate leader is indeed not an ordinary person.

Evans didn't know the final result of the conflict. All he knew was that his pirate group had more than a dozen spaceships and more than a hundred cold corpses in space.

This place is not far from the escape fleet of human civilization. Logically speaking, the escape fleet's detection system can definitely detect this conflict. But for some unknown reason, human civilization remained indifferent and did not make any response to the conflict happening around them. The long-awaited military spacecraft did not arrive.

Evans understood when he saw that the volume of the ship this time was at least half more than the last time. Evans knew that most of the extra stuff went into the pockets of one or a few big shots. When the pockets were full, things naturally settled down.

There is always no shortage of careerists in a civilization, so pirates are like leeks, harvesting one crop after another. New pirate forces are constantly escaping from the fleeing fleet. Gradually, there are so many pirates that Evans's pirate group has no time to annex them.

In the dark starry sky, this place is as chaotic as the Warring States Period. Pirates merged, died, grew, and expanded... Pirate groups disappeared one after another, appeared one after another, and grew stronger... Until now, the pirate groups have grown. Evans, who has grown to the middle level of the group and has access to some confidential events, has even lost count of how many pirate forces exist in this starry sky.

But no matter how the situation changes, Evans' group of pirates will always be the most powerful one.

Countless pirate forces are like moths parasitic on the big tree of human civilization, constantly absorbing nutrients, never ending. And all this ugliness was covered up by the dark starry sky. It was still quiet here, at least... that's how it seemed.