<h4>Chapter 1516: Silence</h4>


    In an endless deep sky, a ck starship was sailing along a nearly straight trajectory towards the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.


    The end of the voyage was Ceres.


    The target was a space pirate base about 0.03 astronomical units away from Ceres!


    Speaking of space pirates active in the asteroid belt, it was a long story.


    In the 2050s, after the first attack on the Starlight cargo ship, the term space pirates entered people’s field of vision through the news media.


    With the continuous expansion of the aerospace industry, mining in the asteroid belt had gradually be a low-cost and highly profitable industry, resulting in arge number of spacecraft being moved from the Earth-Moon system to the asteroid belt.


    Everyone hoped to get rich overnight, and the act of mining arge pile of gold or precious metals more expensive than gold from half a million asteroids and hundreds of millions of meteorite fragments was driven by this extreme desire for wealth. Under these circumstances, a group ofwless people who longed for nothing else was naturally born.


    Relying on the legal gap on the asteroid belt and the limited binding force of various countries in this area, they modified the spacecrafts purchased or leased and attacked other civilian mining ships or mining stations. They became the government of the regions, and their existence caused a headache to most alliances.


    Theplex meteorite environment made it difficult forrge starships to station in this area for a long time, and if it was only a small ship or a space base, it was difficult to guarantee an advantage on the battlefield.


    If deployed separately, those military instations could easily be targets for space pirates. And for centralized deployment, althoughbat effectiveness was guaranteed, they had to fight on the battlefield with a width of hundreds of millions of kilometers and limited visibility.


    After all, they couldn’t expect those space pirates to always show themselves whenever they wished.


    In contrast, the pirates who fled between the asteroid belt and Mars could rely on small ships and smuggled ammunitions to make trouble.


    On one hand, this was because theplicated social environment of Mars provided a breeding ground for the space pirates active in the asteroid belt. On the other hand, it was because of the indulgence of some governments or regional alliances.


    After all, goods snatched frompetitors were always cheaper than goods that flowed into the market through normal channels, not to mention that it would restrict the development ofpetitors, thus allowing themselves to be stronger at the same time.


    Although every once in a while, the Pan-Asian Cooperation would send a fleet to intensively clean up the asteroid belt in a certain area, the results had not been very great.


    There was always news that leaked out in advance, and the cost of sending the fleet to the asteroid belt for missions was too expensive.


    Take this operation as an example. As themand ship, Huashan was the lightest air carrier in the Pan-Asian space force. The two cruisers and five destroyers escorted were all of the lighter-weight types.


    But even so, as long as it entered the active range of the asteroid belt, the cost of this war was destined to be an expensive figure...


    “Send the carrier-based aircraft to investigate the nearby airspace, guard the destroyer’s periphery, deploy the cruiser’s weapons, use EMP shells, lock in on the close-range abnormal target.”


    “Yes, sir!”


    The edge of the asteroid belt was getting closer.


    On the ship bridge.


    Following themand of themander, twelve ship-borne drones ejected from the Huashan aircraft carrier, and silver-white bullets soon plunged into the asteroid belt.


    Although most of the space pirates were behind in terms of weapons technology, making it difficult for them to pose a substantial threat to the regr army of any regional alliance on the front battlefield, they were usually smart and used the terrain advantage to deal with the army.


    For example, they installed nuclear warheads inside asteroids with rtively stable orbits and detonated the nuclear bombs when regr warships approached them, damaging the ships’ hulls through the high-temperature meteorite pieces.


    Or for example, they would hide cruise missiles behind meteorites, drones carrying explosives or anti-armor weapons, or even small assault boats with a pile of loose weapons.


    While threatening nearby mining stations, these space pirates could always cause trouble to regr army ships in unexpected ces.


    The job of these carrier-based aircraft was to investigate the nearby battlefield environment, clear out the traps left by the air pirates, and lock down the potential threats...


    Inside the bridge.


    Themander stared intently at the holographic three-dimensional chart floating on themand table as he frowned.


    It had been almost half an hour since the dispatch of the carrier-based aircraft, but there were still no traces of booby traps or automatic weapons found in this area.


    Years of experience with space pirates told him that this group of space pirates might be different.


    “There is news from the reconnaissance ship ahead that an unknown space station was found near 0.03 astronomical unit of Ceres.”


    After hearing the report from his subordinates, themander immediately ordered, “Model the scan data.”


    “Yes, sir!”


    A light blue image appeared on themand table, and a space station constructed of a three-dimensional holographic grid soon appeared in front of everyone.


    Like most civilian mining stations, this space station was embedded on a small asteroid and upied a quarter of the asteroid’s volume.


    Due to the high content of metal minerals in the vicinity, a natural “electromaic wave ck hole” had been formed. If they didn’t look closely, they would not be able to find the existence of this space station.


    Staring at the space station, the military advisor standing at themand desk frowned and spoke.


    “So strange.”


    Usually, when their carrier-based aircraft approached this position, the two sides would have already begun a fierce exchange of fire, but the space pirates hiding in the space station hadn’t reacted at all.


    The entire space station and the nearby airspace were quiet.


    “It is very strange.” Themander said to himself with a solemn expression in his eyes, “We have dispatched such arge fleet, but they haven’t responded at all. Even if their radar is broken, they still have a visual observation.”


    “Could it be that they happened to be out hunting?”


    “It’s not like it. My instinct tells me that there is something hidden behind this.”


    Themander thought for a while and ordered, “Prepare to send ground troops.


    “No matter what’s inside, we shall go in and take a look.”


    Ground Warfare Advisor: “Do you want tounch infrasonic missiles?”


    “No, no weapons have been observed on the surface of the space station. The armed forces inside should not be very strong. This operation is different from the past. We need a few prisoners.” Looking at the holographic image on themand table, themander calmed down. In a serious tone, he said, “Third orbital airborne brigade! Send out three groups ofmandos, prepare to attack!”


    Six long shuttle-shapednding craft wereunched from the carrier, forming a front and back parallel triangr formation. They proceeded towards the direction of the space station along a straight trajectory.


    Although it was a strong attack, they were not seeking blood.


    The first threending craft hit the outer shell of the space station first. A burst of sparks sshed as the metal jets gushing from the front poured into the space station.


    More than a dozen pneumatic drones were released from the threending crafts, protruding into the interior along the gap in the outeryer of the space station, quickly upying the favorable terrain in the space station. They reported back the situation on the battlefield to the threending crafts’ AI battlefield analysis systems.


    Thest threending crafts directly crashed into the space station from three different angles. As the hatch sted open, the three groups ofmandos entered the space station from three directions. They coordinated with the drones tounch an offensive attack towards the space station.


    However...


    Something unexpected happened.


    The team leader who burst into the core area of the space station with his rifle looked around vigntly. He finally lowered the muzzle in his hand andined, “What the hell is the headquarters doing...”


    The control room was quiet. Except for the sound of the engine running, no noise could be heard. Judging from the venttion system, this space station should have been inhabited by people, and judging from the living supplies, those people should have lived here for a long time.


    However, forget about the space pirates...


    There wasn’t even a single living person here.