Three months later, the Dust Sector was no longer a graveyard. It was a fortress.
Lin Feng sat in the captain's chair of the Mirror Sovereign, a Dreadnought-class vessel he had mirrored from a legendary wreck he found in a nebula. Around him, his "Maid Corps"—now dressed in sleek, black-and-gold uniforms—worked with frantic efficiency.
"Lord Captain," Vanya, the Ice Elf, reported from the tactical station. "A 'Red Skull' pirate fleet has been detected intercepting a civilian transport. They have three 'Ravager' battleships."
"Three?" Lin Feng smiled. "Scan them."
[Target: Ravager Battleship Detected.]
[Mirroring... 100%]
[Deploying 100 Refracted Units.]
When the pirate fleet saw a single ship approach, they laughed over the open comms. "A Viscount's pleasure yacht? We'll take the ship and the girls!"
Then, the space around the Mirror Sovereign began to ripple. One ship became two. Two became four. Four became a hundred.
A literal wall of Dreadnoughts appeared out of the void, their main cannons glowing with the heat of a thousand suns.
"In the name of House Volaris," Lin Feng commanded. "Open fire."
The space was lit by a strobe light of destruction. The pirate fleet didn't even have time to turn around. Their ships were disintegrated, leaving behind only the civilian transport they had been harassing.
Lin Feng boarded the transport personally. Inside, he found hundreds of girls—refugees from ruined worlds, mostly hybrids and demi-humans.
He didn't send them to the Empire. He brought them to his hidden base.
"Lilith," Lin Feng said as they walked through the rows of rescued women. "We're going to need more uniforms. And tell Kara to start building the Mecha-Hangar. I just scanned a pirate 'Star-Crusher' mech, and I want a thousand of them ready by Tuesday."