On May 24, CE70, Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi, the legitimate heir of the Misurugi Empire under the Eurasian Federation, declared independence on an industrial colony satellite in the L3 Colony Cluster, establishing the New Misurugi Republic. The colony satellite was renamed Star Palace and would henceforth exist as a neutral nation.
This news appeared in a small corner amidst the pages of major media outlets across the three Earth federations.
Since the activation of the Neutron Jammers on April 1, Earth's nuclear energy had become completely unusable, and the global wireless communication network suffered severe damage, making long-distance communication exceptionally difficult.
The wired networks, obsolete for nearly a century, were hastily repaired but remained insufficient even for government and military use, leaving civilian networks entirely paralyzed. Thus, newspapers—once relics only found in museums—briefly revived.
However, the news of the Misurugi Republic's independence paled in comparison to the ongoing war in the Casablanca Sea region of Europe.
For Earth's ordinary citizens, having access to cable television was now a luxury. With PLANT plunging its own people into hardship and independent media vanishing, traditional government-controlled media once again monopolized the narrative. As a result, Earth's Naturals were solely preoccupied with when those Coordinators—who had brought them to the brink of starvation—would perish. They couldn't care less about some minor nation breaking away from the Eurasian Federation.
As for PLANT, the establishment of the New Misurugi Republic only scrolled across the ticker at the bottom of international news broadcasts for one cycle. The main coverage remained focused on the conflict with the Earth Alliance.
Thus, the Misurugi Republic's independence might as well have never happened. Aside from the other colony satellites in the L3 Colony Cluster sending their regards, the rest of the world acted as if they were completely unaware.
Behind the scenes, however, Reid had been busy since the declaration of independence. The L3 colony satellites that extended their greetings soon received trade proposals from Angie, offering rice in exchange for minerals, as well as large quantities of light weapons and portable rocket launchers for human use.
The rulers of the L3 colony satellites responded enthusiastically to Angie's trade requests. With Earth and PLANT at war, regardless of their allegiances, food shortages plagued every colony in the L3 region.
The war had severed all regular grain supply routes. PLANT wouldn't easily allow Earth's food supplies to reach their space bases or the colony satellites supporting the Earth Alliance.
At present, only a handful of critical Earth Alliance space bases—such as the Moon Base and Artemis Fortress, which were heavily guarded—had sufficient food supplies.
As for the PLANT-aligned colony satellites, they too were struggling. PLANT itself faced food shortages, barely able to ensure domestic supply, let alone provide meaningful aid to its allies.
Thus, the newly established Misurugi Empire, with its ample food supplies, was welcomed by all. For the administrators of those colony satellites, as long as Angie was willing to sell food, they'd be ready to pawn even their underwear—let alone exchange some minerals and personal weapons for human use. After all, most of the colony satellites in the L3 sector were industrial mining satellites, which meant they had no shortage of ores, if nothing else.
Naturally, the colony satellite clusters in L3 were extremely enthusiastic about the food trade with the Misurugi Empire. However, the actual transactions weren't nearly as straightforward as they seemed.
In fact, quite a few colony satellites harbored the idea of "while the neighbors stockpile food, we stockpile guns—the neighbors will become our granary."
But when the Misurugi Empire's civilian transport ships arrived with food, these colony satellites noticed a strange, blood-stained single-wing emblem on the vessels. A quick investigation revealed it belonged to a mercenary group called Crimson Wings, a newly established organization almost simultaneous with the Misurugi Empire itself, headquartered within the empire.
This put the colony satellites at ease, allowing their own defense forces to masquerade as space pirates. Clearly, this was a desperate revenue-generating move by the Misurugi Empire's fledgling military—creating a mercenary group to legitimize future missions for profit.
However, these colony satellites looked down on the Misurugi Empire's military capabilities. Everyone knew Princess Angelise had been driven out by her own people, leaving her without an army. The mercenary group was likely just the colony satellites' own defense forces repurposed.
So, those with ulterior motives prepared to intercept the food shipments near their own colonies. That way, they wouldn't have to pay a dime, and they could conveniently blame the whole affair on non-existent space pirates.
Unfortunately for them, Reid had the system. When the first colony satellite decided to ambush his food transport ship, the system abruptly issued an emergency mission.
The sharp alert from the system startled Reid. Opening it, he saw the words "Urgent Mission" flashing on the panel.
The mission details were simple:
Armed forces are preparing to attack the food transport ship under your charge. Repel them and protect the shipment.
Reward: 2 Merit Points, 1000 G-Coins.
Realization struck Reid—this was the primary way to earn Merit Points and G-Coins. Relying solely on main missions would take forever to save up for another ten-pull.
Moreover, this meant his food-selling plan could become self-sustaining. With enough G-Coins, the system could produce endless food.
Excited, Reid took Noin, who was also on escort duty, and sortied in their Iron Balls to meet the threat.
The defense forces of the L3 colony satellites mainly consisted of MAW-01 Mistrals, the predecessors of the Moebius. These machines were even less reliable than Iron Balls—essentially just work pods with two 40mm machine cannons strapped to the sides.
Reid was familiar with these cannons, as the Moebius also carried two. However, these were the oldest 40mm variants, not the advanced Porcupine Array Machine Cannons used on later Strike Daggers. Against GINNs, the Moebius's cannons could barely scratch the paint, so Reid hardly ever used them.
But against Iron Balls, these cannons were somewhat effective—after all, the Iron Ball's armor wasn't much better than the Moebius's.
However, the Iron Ball was barely a match for the Moebius, but it was more than enough to deal with these little guys modified from civilian equipment.
The range of the 180mm cannon was three times that of these machine guns, and the Mistral was no Moebius. The engineering pods were designed to prevent high-speed operation, or else a single mistake by the pilot could send them crashing into the Colony Satellite.
Moreover, the number of armed Mistrals on those Colony Satellites was pitifully small. When Reid faced the first attack, he was utterly speechless seeing only three enemy units.
Who in the world gave them the guts to rob him with just three modified civilian engineering pods?
There was nothing more to say. The enemy pilots weren't even professional soldiers—their evasive maneuvers were rigid and predictable. At least the Iron Ball's targeting system was military-grade. Reid took them out one by one with clean, precise shots, blowing up the attackers effortlessly.
Since the attackers bore the title of space pirates, Reid had no qualms about killing them. Their affiliated Colony Satellite could only swallow their bitterness in silence, unable to voice any complaints.
As for the subsequent transactions, Reid's show of force proved they weren't to be trifled with. The scheming Colony Satellites became much more compliant, not only delivering the agreed-upon goods in full but also sweating profusely as they sent Reid and his crew off with effusive thanks. They even transferred a few billion into Reid's account, suggesting they could be friends and maintain friendly relations in the future.
The only consequence of this, however, was that the new Misurugi Empire successfully caught the attention of PLANT. PLANT was curious—with no one on Earth supplying food to the new Misurugi Empire, where were they getting so much grain?
(End of Chapter)