Not many joined the afternoon’s open auction. Xia Fei knew that most would participate in the auction, and the carnival would hold three sessions of auctions each other, with the afternoon and night session having the better grade items for auction, thereby attracting even more people.
Xia Fei took a look around and did not find anything he desperately needed, so he made his way back to Sparrow Island.
He had nothing to do that night, and it was early the next morning when Mosquito knocked at Xia Fei’s front door.
“Brother Xia Fei, this is the catalog for today’s auction. I can only give you a simple annotation; due to the limited time, I wasn’t able to classify them all in time.”
Every day, the latest auction catalog had to be collected from the Thirteen Pearls Island, and from the sweat beading down Mosquito’s forehead, it was obvious that he had delivered this straight to Xia Fei the moment he had gotten it from the auction, while the cramped annotation he made must have been written while he was making his trip back, his handwriting lacking the usual refinement.
Xia Fei knitted his eyebrows together. “Brother Mosquito, there’s no need for you to make a trip out to Thirteen Pearl Island specially just to retrieve a catalog for me. I can just get one for myself when I get there.”
Mosquito chuckled as he took out dozens of other catalogs from his spatial ring. “Since I have to pick some up for Bean, Monkey, and the others, I don’t mind grabbing an extra copy for you.”
Xia Fei nodded, thinking to himself, ‘Sending Mosquito out before breakfast to retrieve the auction catalog, those princelings sure put on quite the airs.’
Without even waiting for Xia Fei to thank him, Mosquito hurried off.
Shrugging, Xia Fei closed his door and sat by the window and casually perused today’s offerings. The auction list would change every day, and Mosquito had very carefully circled out the day’s new addition in red, making it convenient for Xia Fei to read. He was quite disappointed because, be it precious medicinal ingredients or a spatial ring with plenty of storage space, none of the items Xia Fei currently lacked the most appeared on the list.
“Looks like I’ll have to wait till the last day.” Xia Fei tossed the catalog aside.
Phantom said, “That’s probably how it’s supposed to be. Any auction will leave the best items for the finale, and we’ve yet to even get our hands on the list for the final day. Who’s to say that you won’t get the fright of your life when it comes out?”
The Brotherhood had intentionally kept things under wraps and not revealed the auction list for the final day, only making it publicly known on the second last day of the carnival. Xia Fei was not the only one; everybody’s looking forward to that day. Even if they were unable to afford anything, it was still quite thrilling just to catch a glimpse of what was on offer, too.
Presently, the only auction item that Xia Fei knew of was his extra large Purple Heart of Spirit. Aside from it, Xia Fei had absolutely no idea with regard to what would be sold on the last day or what the program would entail, and that went to show just how successful The Brotherhood was in keeping things secret on this end.
Over the next few days, Xia Fei continued to look around the Thirteen Pearls Island. Even if there was nothing he needed, there was nothing wrong with expanding his horizons.
Mosquito would deliver a copy of the day’s newly updated catalog daily, and Xia Fei could not help but feel quite sorry for the lad. He was barely twelve or thirteen years of age, yet he was always getting bullied to run errands for the others every day. It was really a tough life to lead.
However, Mosquito did not seem to mind this one bit, more than happy to help everyone. None of the princelings had a better background than the other, and even a finger from any one of them would be thicker than the thighs of any commoner. There was no reason for them to be afraid of one another, so it was ultimately all because of Mosquito’s introverted personality that he was being exploited thusly. There would most likely have been hell to pay had Xia Fei been in his shoes.
The lady Nicole seemed to still be mad at Xia Fei. Many times he had tried to get close to her, in hopes of discussing the matter of buying warships, only to be rebuffed by her each and every time. Xia Fei was unwilling to purchase them at the market price; since they were all fellow A-list suppliers of the military, what was so hard about giving him a discount?
The warships that each of the four major warship manufacturers all had their own characteristics.
The Amarr company usually retrofitted their ships with thicker armor plating and powerful laser weapons, having devoted considerable research toward greater defensive capabilities as well as positional warfare; they were widely known as the number one thick-hulled warship manufacturers in all of the Alliance.
When a group of Amarrian warships neatly positioned themselves in formation and slowly advanced toward their enemy, the force of deterrence and ensuing devastation they could create was unparalleled, for a barrage of laser beams would rain down like a meteor shower to decimate the enemy warships.
As the best warships in the Alliance for positioning assault, the weakness of Amarrian warships was their lack of mobility, for their cumbersome hull plating greatly reduced their turning and forward propulsion.
They were like a pack of fearless knights, taking enemy fire as they advanced, never stopping unless they were separately taken apart one by one.
Caldari company was famous for its unique missile weapons, manufacturing warships that were ideal for long-range engagements, able to provide safe sustained fire in a frontal battle.
Missiles needed to account for flight time. Imagine a hundred Caldarian Raven-class battleships hiding in a dark corner, firing their missiles in unison at their enemy. By the time the latter realize what was happening, they would already have been surrounded by a wave of missiles, and it would be futile to make any attempt at escape from this ambush of high-speed tracking missiles that they fired, so unless they could make an immediate warp away from their position, all they could do was wait until this wave of missiles came crashing right into them.
Caldarian warships were more reliant on their energy shields when it came to defense, and their weak resistance was their greatest weakness.
Mittal company was the most junior out of the four companies; its warships focused on speed, producing warships that were much quicker than all the other companies. This also meant that its ships were even more agile than the others, making them the experts at guerrilla warfare.
The Mittal company focused its research on rapid-fire turrets. While it was weaker in terms of firepower, the company had the reputation of producing nightmare-inducing small warships. Those who relied on speed and agility to avoid enemy fire would hate to go up against a warship made by this company.
In terms of defense, Mittal warships were basically no match for the Caldari company’s battleships. Most of the time, they relied on speed and agility in active defensive maneuvers.
As for Chairwoman Nicole Sawyer’s Gaia Industries, her company’s ships were widely known for being close-combat killers. Thick hull plating and the Alliance’s top firepower rapid neutron blasters, such warships were given the wide berth of others. As long as a Gaian warship got in close range, the outcome would most likely end in tragedy for the enemies.
In terms of defense, Gaian warships were weaker than Amarrian warships but stronger than Caldari or Mittal. Their weakness was in short range, making them more suited to small-scale squad battles or head to head battles.
Boasting decent defense and the greatest firepower in the entire Pan-human Alliance, this was why Xia Fei wished to purchase several Gaian battleships. After all, Xia Fei, who was planning to raise a small fleet, was concerned with both their maneuverability and firepower. Besides, Xia Fei was a huge fan of the rapid neutron blasters, and the ideal small fleet in his eyes must have this key capability of pouncing on the enemy and dealing a devastating amount of damage at the drop of a hat.
Xia Fei could not help but feel quite vexed now that Nicole was refusing to cooperate with him. He decided that he was not going to look for this lady with a weird temperament and talk about getting a discount anymore, planning to approach the other three companies after the Carnival was over and making his decision afterward.
…
On the second last day of the trade fair, Xia Fei made his trip out of Thirteen Pearls Island as per usual, but aside from his usual look around, he had another goal in mind, for the Chief of Staff Williams had suddenly rung him up, asking him out to discuss something.
The sand on the beach was pristine and white. The soft glow from the sun and slight humidity in the air was pleasant. Naturally, Williams was seated on a beach chair enjoying the candy and drinks that the staff was serving him.
…
“General Williams, why don’t I see General Tai or Admiral Layton?” Xia Fei smiled as he approached the man.
“The two of them are uninterested in the auction and such things, and only thoughts pertaining to military affairs and war populate their mind, which is why they immediately returned to the office once their official business here was concluded. I’m still waiting to participate in that final auction hosted on the last day, which is why I stayed behind.”
Xia Fei furrowed his brows. “I’ve already suspected that General Williams knows how to enjoy life, and it turns out I was right, but did you just say that General Tai and Admiral Layton came here on official business?”
Williams nodded. “That’s right. Talking to you that day was part of their work here.”
Xia Fei was slightly surprised, casually taking out a cigarette and placing it between his lips.
He already found it a little strange that the military triumvirate had sought him for a discussion that day, seemingly intentionally getting him to share his views on many things. Was that actually the official business?
This must not be anything of a simple matter if the triumvirate had to be dispatched together.
“Do you still remember when we chatted about insectoids the other day?” Williams smiled.
“Of course.”
“Imagine you are the leader of the insectoids, and you’ve been unsatisfied with the Pan-human Alliance this entire time; when would you choose to let loose the hounds of war?”
Xia Fei mulled over this and answered, “In six months’ time.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
The Death Tri-region insurgency is about to begin, and a lot of the Alliance’s elite fleets have already been sent over, meaning that it may be a year or two before they can be back. Given that the Alliance hasn’t been in any war this whole time, and our conventional forces have been reduced time and again, I don’t have any knowledge of the present count of the Alliance fleets, but I dare imagine that they shouldn’t be a lot. After all, maintaining a standing army is very expensive in peacetime, and the politicians of the Pan-human Alliance will most definitely not agree to it.
“Already with a lack of fleets, since the war in the Death Tri-region has ended up drawing away a good portion of them, too, I’m afraid that the defense of the Alliance borders will be at its weakest at present.
“Plus, the Alliance will be devoting plenty of its funds in rebuilding the Death Tri-region from here on out; a war breaking out with the insectoids will cause the Pan-human Alliance to face double the monetary pressure.”
Williams nodded his head. “That’s a good analysis of the situation, but why did you set it to six months from now?”
Xia Fei chuckled. “That’s easy. The fighting in the Death Tri-region will be at its peak in six months’ time. That makes it the most suitable time frame if the plan is to invade us while we’re unprepared to repel them.”
Williams sighed, staring at the rolling waves in the distant horizon without saying a word. His gaze was profound and his expression was melancholic.
“You may have gotten it, but not everyone has managed to do what you’ve done.”
Xia Fei was stunned. He could already feel an unusual sense of foreboding creeping up on him from the words Willliams just said.
“What? Are the insectoids really going to war with us?”
Williams did not give him an answer. “At present, all I can say is that there’s a very high probability.”
Xia Fei did not continue asking about the matter. He was not someone from the military, so the fact that Williams could even reveal this to him was already unexpected.
“The insectoids are very crafty. That time frame you gave, invading six months after, is already quite a vicious blow, but their plan is far more devious than what you’ve just supposed,” Williams said gravely.
*Crunch!*
Williams bit down hard on a piece of maple candy.
