Starting from the Planetary Governor

It wasn’t much, just a little bit.

Painting a pie in the sky couldn’t be considered deception, if the Starfighters were willing to help him, and Rage Owl Star did indeed develop as he’d planned, then he wouldn’t mind supporting a Battle Group.

He had never intended for Phoenix to be entirely, utterly at his service.

The difference was too significant.

Within the Imperial system, a planetary governor and a Starfighter Battle Group commander were completely separate entities; there was no subordination to speak of. However, when it came to status, the latter held much greater esteem than the former.

If it were the heyday of the Phoenix Battle Group, they would dominate their home planet, where the planetary governor would merely act as a mortal housekeeper, handling the menial tasks the Starfighters couldn’t be bothered with. His influence would be incredibly strong within the span of a Star Sector, with every governor respectfully welcoming the commander’s arrival and praying for their neighbor’s aid should their world face threats. Throughout the entire Star Realm, even across countless light-years of distance, the reputation of the Phoenix would be widely known.

Once a large-scale war broke out, and if only one Battle Group were involved, the Battle Group commander would often become the supreme military commander. The Imperial Navy and the Imperial Star Realm Army might not be nominally under the Battle Group, but they would fully respect the commander’s wishes, and even follow their commands—unless, of course, there was some highly reputed general present, which could change the situation.

Although the Phoenix was no longer what it had been a hundred years ago, its organizational structure remained, and the commander’s identity persisted, so there was no way Gu Hang could make a Battle Group completely obey him.

Not even the head of a Star Sector could achieve that.

But forming an alliance, a mutual benefit, that was enough.

You live in my house, drive my car, eat the food I provide, use the supplies I acquire for you, and I’ve even promised to rebuild your Battle Group… In such circumstances, it-‘s not too much to ask you to fire a couple of shots to help me out in times of trouble, right?

As long as this covenant was maintained, Gu Hang didn’t mind, after some time, fulfilling his promise to help them rebuild their Battle Group. Whether it was providing manpower, resources, or finding ways to build or purchase starships for them.

As for where Gu Hang deceived them…

It was what he mentioned earlier, the third point about ‘replenishing enough Starfighters.’

Gu Hang actually had a way.

How does one become a Starfighter? It is a very difficult task.

A ‘Genetic Seed’ is needed.

Once chosen, the candidate would undergo intense genetic modification. After enduring one or two years of transformation, allowing the Genetic Seed to completely and meticulously alter their entire body, they would become a new recruit.

Then, after lengthy training, when the Battle Group believed the new recruit met their standards, they would be granted powered armor, thus truly becoming a Starfighter.

It may sound easy, but in reality, the process is extremely tough.

After the Genetic Seed is implanted, enduring the intense modifications is immensely challenging.

Candidates who aspire to become Starfighters are selected from billions of people for their robust physique and resolute will; but even so, most cannot withstand it. Whether their body gives out, or their will falters, failure to endure either would lead to genetic collapse and death.

They made it through, and then came the new recruit training phase. Fortunately, this part was merely harsh, typically not resulting in too high a mortality rate.

In this entire process, the two most important things were high-quality soldier sources and genetic seeds.

Soldier sources were relatively easy to come by, as most battle groups had an entire planet as their recruitment world, their so-called mother planet. They could select soldiers from a planet’s population, choosing the best of the best, generally without worry; even starship-based battle groups could try recruiting on some planets. Inducting on a planetary scale wasn’t too practical, but handpicking a few hundred people to take away for training was hardly ever opposed by any governor.

Even in the sorry state that Phoenix Battle Group was in now, they could randomly go to a world, abduct a few promising seeds, and most planets wouldn’t bother pursuing a group of starfighters over a few people.

But even if they solved the soldier source issue, Phoenix Battle Group still couldn’t solve the latter problem, that of the genetic seeds.

How the Emperor once created the starfighter genetic seeds is no longer known; the technology from tens of thousands of years ago wasn’t preserved. In this era, starfighters mainly relied on ‘giving birth’ to their own kind.

Each starfighter could produce two genetic seeds in their lifetime. The first seed would mature inside them after five years as a starfighter and could be extracted to develop new recruits; the second seed matured ten years later but couldn’t be extracted and was only obtainable after their death.

Theoretically, starfighters could duplicate one to two, two to four, four to eight… growing exponentially. But in reality, that was impossible.

Starfighters were always fighting in the most dangerous battles. It was very common to have bodies shattered beyond recovery or no time to collect the corpses, making the second seed difficult to retrieve. Only the first seed was a relatively stable source.

Furthermore, each battle group was required to hand over 10% of their genetic seeds to the Empire within a certain timeframe as a genetic tax. This was to check whether the battle group’s genetic seeds were pure, uncontaminated, or had mutations. The collected genetic seeds also formed the seed bank used by the Empire to create new battle groups.

On top of that, the surgery for implanting genetic seeds had a not insignificant failure rate. A failure meant the loss of both person and seed.

With multiple factors stacking up, it was almost impossible for Phoenix Battle Group to go from seven to fourteen to twenty-eight.

What was worse, the seven living members of Phoenix were all veterans over a hundred years old, and their five-year seeds had long been harvested. To harvest again, they would have to die.

Moreover, it seemed they no longer had a Pharmacist specializing in genetic seed implantation surgery; they could only ask Priest Rizzo to do the job. He was capable, but certainly not as reliable as a professional battle group Pharmacist. Less skill meant an even lower chance of the recipient successfully awakening.

Gu Hang said he couldn’t help Phoenix with this matter, and Matins didn’t doubt it at all, considering it just a fleeting topic of discussion.

No starfighter would expect a mere mortal to be able to provide any help to Phoenix in this regard.

But the truth was, Gu Hang did have the ability.

In the [Event] panel, the [Phoenix on the Verge of Death] event had taken on a new development.

[Phoenix on the Verge of Death: Genetic Seed (Repeatable Event, can be selected indefinitely)]

[The Phoenix Battle Group has come to Rage Owl Star, reaching a preliminary cooperation agreement with you. A governor seeking to grasp and develop a world, and a battle group on the brink of death yet determined to rise again, make a good match.]

[The most important thing for the resurrection of the battle group, the genetic seed, is nowhere to be found. If you had the capacity, how would you choose?]

[Pay 100 points of Grace to receive one genetic seed (Phoenix Battle Group).]

Looking at this system feature, feeling happy was secondary; the biggest feeling for Gu Hang was the cold sweat running down his back.