Star Rank Hunter

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Chapter 207: Searching for A Temporary Base, A Strange Planet [Part 1]

Inside the Sixth B Squadron’s starship, Cillin stared at a string of characters displayed his communicator’s panel. Once these characters were decoded, it revealed a message transmitted by the Hunter Blade Jiada.

The main reason Jiada sent him this message was to tell him that ‘Grim Reaper’ wouldn’t be sending anyone after Cillin, and that he didn’t need to worry about them for now. Moreover, he also informed him that Oskulos was currently being held up by some people in the military. After all, Oskulos was an infamous star rank lone wolf in GAL, and it was only natural that anyone who knew about him would be on their highest guard around him. That was why Cillin was safe for now, and had some time to prepare himself.

Cillin had always been rather curious about the Hunting Blade Jiada. He was called the lone wolf second only to Oskulos, and although Jiada claimed that he had only escaped to Sector Z’s prison to recuperate after he was hurt by Oskulos, Cillin thought that he was only telling him a half-truth.

Cillin believed that Jiada was hurt by Oskulos, but he was not making any conclusions as to whether Jiada had escaped to Sector Z to recuperate or for something else.

The fact that he was able to survive Oskulos’ wrath proved just how strong he was, but Cillin hadn’t forgotten to consider another point. Oskulos might have been able to hurt Jiada back then, but what about now?

Jiada gave Cillin an extremely strange feeling. He was someone he didn’t understand. Judging from Oskulos’ temperament, he shouldn’t have changed his mind since he set his eyes on Cillin. So why did he?

The reason was ultimately Jiada.

Just how much stronger had Jiada become after so many years?

Excluding individual strength, the fact that Jiada could speak to ‘Grim Reaper’ and influence them was an astounding achievement already. Adding that to his apparent ability to divine, a shroud of mystery had been cast around Jiada whether or not he was telling he the truth.

“Wah—— we’re here!”

Cary’s loud voice pulled Cillin back from his thoughts.

Everyone looked excited as they stared at the images being displayed on the screen.

This place was the territory Vanguard was allocated according to the star map.

Sector Z-J, also known as Sector Z Zone J. For the next ten years, this place would be a resource excavation area for Vanguard.

The squadrons first analysed the general situation of this territory and listed all the states of its planets. This was to make their future operations more convenient.

After ten days of data gathering, the A Squadron confirmed a relatively big planet as a Rank A planet. They called it planet Z-J100.

Unless a special reason or two were to show up, planet Z-J100 would be treated as the main planet of Zone J be it now or when it was turned to the military after the confirmation.

Once the key planet had been confirmed, the ten B Squadrons continuously explored the area. With planet Z-J100 and the heart of the zone as the starting point, they took over a planet each in Zone J as their temporary base and spread out towards ten different directions, exploring on their own.

It wasn’t as easy as it seemed to find a suitable planet to use as a temporary base for a B Squadron. While it would of course be nice to find a Rank A planet, they could only seek out a Rank B planet instead if none were found. However, Rank A planets were incredibly few to begin when considering Sector Z’s space environment, and the best planet they found had already been selected as a key planet.

Since Sector Z-J’s communication network had been launched in full, and Sector Z’s environment had became milder than it normally was, the B Squadrons were able to communicate relatively frequently with each other. At the very least, everyone knew who had found a suitable planet, and who hadn’t yet made any progress.

As the exploration continued, more news that the B Squadrons had found their respective planets came through the communication channel in succession, and among them two lucky bastards managed to stumble upon a Rank A planet each. Although the planets weren’t huge, it was enough to cause envy among other B Squadrons.

Everyone in the Sixth B Squadron had begun to feel impatient. This was because they still hadn’t confirmed the planet they would make their temporary base.

Not only were there no Rank A planets at all, they found only 3 Rank B planets during their exploration. Worse, the environment of these planets alone took them off the list of potentials before they even started looking at the planets’ sizes. They were simply not suitable to build a temporary base on.

Rank C planets were even less of a concern. Of course there were more Rank C planets out there, but who in their right minds would build a temporary base on a Rank C planet?

If this was in the past, then the squad would rush to a Rank C planet and survey it on foot like they were on drugs. But unfortunately no one was in the mood to check out a Rank C planet. Right now, their highest priority was to find a suitable planet to build their temporary base on, and those planetary inspections could only start after the base was built. How could they possibly be in the mood to perform an inspection when they hadn’t even had a place to stay in and knowing that the B Squadrons who had started their temporary bases were watching them like they were circus animals?

At the main starship, Shawton and the technicians were busy checking out the scan results from the probes they had sent to all directions. Unfortunately, the surrounding planets were either all at planetary habitability Rank C or Rank D.

The results of the analysis were also transmitted simultaneously to all squads after they were processed by the technicians. This was so that everyone could have a grasp of the situation.

Cary read through the scan results Shawton had sent them from the main starship with a miserable look and said discontentedly, “Don’t you guys think that our luck is running a little low this time? If not, why would we have found only those two stunted Rank B planets?”

Eudy threw a sideway glance at him and said, “It’s amazing that they managed to evolve into Rank B planets with such environment in the first place.”

Cary let out a hmph and said, “Do we seriously need to go back to those stunted planets and build our temporary base on one of them? I don’t wanna, that’s so embarrassing…”

Beaver looked at the data summary they had collected for the past few days in his hands and said helplessly, “What can you do? Not every B Squadron can be a lucky bastard.”

Cary turned his head and stared at the white fatso rolling around at the corner of the room with Dough, “Snowball, come over and let me pinch you for my mental health, will you?”

Snowball immediately rolled away the second he heard Cary’s request. He ignored him no matter how Cary cried out to him.

“F*ck, this white fatso is growing less and less lovable!”

“Cary, Snowball is still lovable. You can’t see it because you’re having your period,” Eudy played with Dough’s tail for a bit after it had jumped onto his knees.

“You’re the one who’s having his period!”

Beaver shook his head and ignored their arguments. He looked back at the analysis data and stared at the scenery being displayed on the big monitor. They were currently passing by a Rank C planet, but although it had a passable amount of surface area, it really wasn’t suitable to stay in according to the data transmitted back by the probes. After all, just how good a planet that was categorised as rank C could get in the first place?

There were plenty of people who shared Beaver’s thoughts, which was why the Sixth B Squadron’s starships showed no sign of stopping.

However, when they got closer and closer to the Rank C planet, the gray cat that was napping on Cillin’s shoulders suddenly opened its eyes and straightened its ears.

“What is it?” Cillin asked when he saw the gray cat’s reactions.

“We have a situation. That planet… something’s not right with that planet!” The gray cat stared at the planet that was identified as a rank C on the big monitor.

“What’s wrong with it?”

The gray cat didn’t say anything, but Cillin could see its pupils expanding and contracting into vertical slits. If this planet could cause such a great interest in the gray cat then…

Cillin immediately called Shawton’s communicator.

“Commander, we have a situation. Please stop the starships for a moment.”

“What is it?” Shawton asked.

Shawton was feeling pretty bad himself right now. The Sixth B Squadron hadn’t made any progress until now, and the person who drew the straws to decide which direction the B Squadrons were headed to was him. He was feeling quite a lot of pressure too since they hadn’t found a single good planet along this direction to the point that even the squadron’s personnel were complaining.

“There’s a little something. I would like to go to that Rank C planet and take a look,” Cillin immediately voiced out his thoughts.

Shawton frowned and fell silent for a moment. Then, he said, “Alright, how much support do you need?”

“I’m fine. I’ll just bring Wheeze and Czedow with me.”

“You have three hours. Come back immediately if you found nothing.”

“Okay.”