Star Hunter.

Chapter 111 Extortion

Shorten sat in the conference room, his hand pressed to his forehead, his brow furrowed, utterly exhausted. Beside him sat Laro, the only one of the six vice-captains who was relatively unharmed. Diaz and Russo were seriously wounded, and Asia had stayed by Diaz's side. Vice-captains Akai and Vachin had been captured, leaving only Laro.

Both Shorten and Laro remained silent after entering the meeting room, unsure of what to say, pinning their hopes on the home team.

Shorten wiped his face; he hadn't had a moment's rest in the past few days.

As expected, the Sixth Squadron was still short-handed. The former captain of the Sixth Squadron was a very strong person, but also very selfish. In fact, the reason why the Sixth Squadron, despite its small size, didn't fall behind the other ten squadrons was because of the former captain, Seru. Seru's personal abilities were too strong and comprehensive, so much so that Seru personally handled many things in the Sixth Squadron. This was because the efficiency of others was not as high as Seru's, and Seru was an extremely efficiency-oriented person. This fostered a dependency mentality among many people in the Sixth Squadron.

Since Serru was transferred to the main fleet and Shorten took over as captain, the shortcomings of the Sixth Squadron have gradually become apparent. Fortunately, there's Diaz, who has a keen eye for talent and quickly filled the huge void left by Serru's promotion during Shorten's tenure. Until the arrival of the new recruits from Xilin, Shorten had been full of confidence. However, these past few days, Shorten has been hesitant. A single "Venom" has driven them to this predicament, and Shorten truly doesn't know what to do. In this situation, he doesn't even have anyone to offer advice or share the burden.

Just then, the doorbell rang in the conference room. Xiao Dun brought up the display screen, saw Xilin standing outside the door, paused, sighed, and pressed the button to open the conference room door.

Shorten pointed to a chair next to him. "Sit."

Xilin pulled up a chair and sat down, glancing at Vice-Captain Laro, then at the exhausted-looking Shorton, and said, "Can you tell me what happened?"

Shorten removed his hand from his forehead, brought up a display screen, and moved it in front of Xilin. "These are the images from that period." After saying that, Shorten fell silent.

As Xilin watched the images on the screen, from the appearance of the combat starships to the collision between the starships and fighters of both sides, and the emergency return of those exploring the planet under the cover of dispatched fighters, the most obvious was the suicide crashes of the "Venom Fangs." The colliding fighters were like fireworks suddenly bursting in the night sky, carrying helplessness and tragedy. Xilin could feel everyone's feelings at that time. No one would have an easy time facing a group of madmen. The usual strategies and skills were really not very effective against this group of madmen.

The members of "Venom" are experienced and skilled, and their sheer madness makes them seem unbelievable even to those who only watch the videos. No wonder the military and hunter groups are unwilling to face "Venom"; "Venom" can afford to be mad, but they can't.

To avoid repeating the same mistake, the six squadrons deployed their fighter jets relatively far apart, making it easier to avoid any unexpected incidents and preventing them from being concentrated together and bombarded with shockwave grenades like Miyuki. However, the "Venom" team seemed to have no intention of using shockwave grenades this time. The continuous indiscriminate attacks and suicidal crashes were indeed very oppressive.

Then, the lucky group returned to the starship safely, while the unlucky ones were left on that planet forever, and a group of people were intercepted and captured by the "Fang" people.

Diaz and Yudi were among the lucky ones, but their luck came at a heavy price.

From the moment they started watching the footage, Shorten and Laro had been observing Xilin's expression. To their surprise, Xilin's expression remained unchanged throughout, without even a hint of murderous intent...

It's worth noting that after Shorten sent the video to Bart, in the video Bart replied, even though it was just a video, Shorten could feel the murderous intent of Bart and Sumbarro, while the young man in front of him was frighteningly calm.

After watching the footage, Xilin turned to Shorten and asked, "What happened to those who were captured?"

Those familiar with "Venom" know that Venom rarely takes prisoners. Even if they do, they torture and kill them one by one. But the strange thing is that so far, no information about torture and killing has been received.

Shorten tapped the table with his finger as usual, pondering for a while, seemingly considering how to bring up the matter.

"Originally, the 'Fang' gang planned to torture and kill them, but they learned about the energy ore and decided to blackmail them. They just told us to wait for further notice regarding the specifics."

Once upon a time, the reputation of the four great hunter groups was so prestigious that even other hunter groups respected them to some extent, let alone in military and political circles. When had they ever been forced to this point? And extorted! Shorten felt a deep sense of guilt, whether towards his fallen teammates, Diaz and the others lying in the hospital, or towards the entire Vanguard. This was a deep wound.

Xilin understood that the fact that the "Fang" members knew about the energy ore didn't mean there was a traitor in the team. There are many ways to get anyone who hasn't received special training to reveal secrets, let alone madmen like the "Fang" who are skilled in all sorts of methods. They definitely have even more ingenious ways to make those captured reveal secrets without them even realizing it.

Where did they go?

"I don't know." Shorten shook his head. There were too many things going on on the starship after the chaos of battle, and there were still hostages on the "Fang" side. "Fang" forbade them to follow, and Shorten didn't let anyone follow either. He knew that if the people of "Fang" found out that they were secretly following, he didn't know how many of those thirty-odd lives would be left.

"What do you mean, Captain?" Xilin asked again.

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"Bart already knows the situation. Fortunately, the home team also has reinforcements heading to that green planet to be stationed. He told us to wait and send some people over to support us once the reinforcements arrive."

Everyone in the four hunter groups knew that a squadron and the main fleet were not the same thing. A squadron was a place to test and evaluate people, and only the best were selected to join the main fleet. No squadron wanted to ask the main fleet for help, because that would mean their squadron was incompetent, like a child who couldn't solve problems on their own and needed their parents to step in. However, for the sake of the Sixth Squadron, Shorten still sent a message to Bart explaining the situation. Even though Bart offered words of comfort, saying that "Fang" was a special group that an ordinary squadron couldn't handle, Shorten still felt a tightness in his chest. Seeing the wreckage still floating outside the starship and thinking of his team members lying in hospital beds, Shorten felt a deep weariness.

"If there is any information about extortion, we hope the captain can inform us."

Xilin stood up, preparing to leave. Suddenly, the emergency communicator next to Shorten rang: "Captain, a drone is approaching! And there's an unknown signal!"