Skyfire Avenue

Gabriel knew that the survivors of their genetic experiments hated the Pontiff’s Citadel. They hadn’t been brain washed, their memories were fully intact. Most of them had already undergone the process to improve their potency. They were supposed to be the bedrock upon which the Pontiff’s Citadel flourished. Now it was all over. All over…

Lan Jue ignored him. He focused on drawing in energy from the Phylactery Stone to recover what the Binding Blade had devoured. He put a little bit of his energy into the gem every day during his cultivations. Still to this day he hadn’t managed to top it off.

Lan Jue felt much the same as the rest of the Star Division; this had gone a lot easier than expected. He thought back to Xiaosu’s disappointment. He knew that if she had been in control, taking it would have been much more difficult. Their success so far was largely due to her expertise, and disunity within the pirate ranks.

After killing Redbeard in one strike, none of the pirates dared step through the control room door. With such broken spirits, how could they defeat the Star Division?

ζ

The Shattered Starfields, Outer Space.

The crew of Majesty watched as explosions sparked to life on the planet’s surface. From where they sat, it didn’t look all that impressive. However, they knew it meant the attack was underway.

“The main gun is charged!”

Excitement lit up the Accountant’s face when he heard the report. “Our target is the first airfield on secondary planet alpha. Prepare to fire!”

Majesty remained in geostationary orbit above the planet. It was hidden from view thanks to the Blinding Stone. They didn’t need to fear any radar giving their position away.

The front part of the ship rotated and parted, while from within an enormous cannon peaked its head out. The barrel of the weapon was fifty meters in diameter. It was a dreadnaught’s weapon, but not overly large. There were other differences that made it special. Jue Di had designed it personally: it was both anti-matter cannon and isolated energy gun.

Antimatter guns were like positron cannons. They were made specifically for use in outer space because the beams were fragile and exploded on contact. Firing one on a planet’s surface would ignite its atmosphere.

However, by isolating the energy projectiles from the environment, the problem was resolved. Now they could rain anti-matter destruction on any target they wished.

“Fire!”

An incandescent color swelled then burst from the mouth of the cannon. It pierced the planet’s atmosphere without a sound and found its target – the planet’s largest airship hangar.

The planet was smaller and less developed than Moonfiend. Each of the secondary planets had two airfields each. Majesty’s first target was the largest one.

The easiest way to stop them from coming to Moonfiend’s aid was to destroy their ships. If they were grounded there was nothing they could do. Good enough for now. After the shot was fired Majesty blasted off into the distance without waiting to see the result.

The planet’s defenses were nothing to sniff at. Although the Blinding Stone kept them hidden most of the time, it was easier for AI systems to lock on once they started their attacks. Staying still was asking for death. They had to keep themselves away from the railguns’ crosshairs.

A white dot bloomed and grew across the small planet’s surface. Before long it was a blazing white blemish visible from space. When it receded a crater was left behind, smooth as glass.

Golden light shimmered to life between the layers of the planet’s atmosphere. That was its defenses kicking into gear. However, it was already too late. Majesty’s blast wiped the planet’s surface clean.

For the second hangar, Majesty didn’t need to engage in combat. The ship silently expanded its orbit and waited in the darkness of space. Each of the hangars was supposed to have one battleship and seven or eight patrol boats as an entourage. If they dared to leave for planet Moonfiend, the Accountant would be there to meet them.

However, pirate courage wasn’t something one commonly encountered. They were at their most arrogant when attacking cargo ships that couldn’t defend themselves.

The pirates in the remaining air field were dumbstruck. The planets’ defenses had immediately turned on, and at their highest levels. Safe Moonfiend? They’d gotten the message, but right now their own skin was more important.

“Ai, pirates are boring. I wonder how they’d react if they were a real military unit.” The Accountant muttered the questions to himself as he stared at the screen, head cradled in his palms.

“Let’s go. We’ll be backup for Mistress Photographer.” The ship maneuvered for an encounter with secondary planet beta. They lift a small stealth satellite behind to keep an eye on the pirates. Then, they were gone.

“Why aren’t they here yet? Why aren’t they here yet?” Luo Xianni floated lazily in the vacuum of space. She looked terribly bored.

It felt like she’d been waiting for half a day. She’d left Majesty when he announced the start of their operation, and took position out by the planet. There she waited.

If someone were to come across her like this, they’d be mortified. She floated in space without any suit or protective equipment. She wore a pretty dress, and that was all. She leisurely watched the planet below in the perfect silence. She was beginning to look resentful, and impatient.

“They’ve already started! Why hasn’t anyone reacted over here? Ugh, pirates are so boring!” Luo Xianni complained.

“I wonder what Chi Bupang is doing. I’m sure Little Qing’s told him about what we’re up to. Hehehe, Chi Bupang, just you wait. I’m never going to let you out of my palm. If these two kids are your charges, then they’re mine too. Later we’ll see where their affection lies! Hmph!”

Luo Xianni felt better. Now she could sit here and silently praise herself on her clever plans. Just then, she noticed things starting to stir on the planet’s surface. Twenty ships were coming her way.

Luo Xianni had told them she could seal the planet, but after discussing it with Xiaosu Lan Jue felt it was unnecessary. The most dangerous were the pirate battleships. So long as they were handled and didn’t get involved in the fight, they would be fine. So, her target changed from the whole planet, to just its armada.

“Stupid pirates. They could eat shit and complain about the temperature.” They certainly seemed oblivious. She’s received news from Lan Jue that all of the airfields were destroyed. Taking the Moonfiend Palace would be difficult, especially if the opposition didn’t have any battleships to back them up. The battle was already decided. For them to come rushing over was stupid, simply put.

Luo Xianni flicked her wrist. Suddenly, the familiar pink camera was in her grip. She vanished, appearing once again a short distance away. What she saw was four battleships and twenty five patrol boats coming her way. But as an Adept who could shrink a planet to an inch, this was weak-sauce.

It wasn’t that the pirates were slow to react. It took time to prepare a battleship for launch and get it airborne. In addition, their attack commenced at dawn when the pirates were deep asleep. They had to wake up and get ready, all under the specter of destruction from an unseen enemy. They could be forgiven for taking a little bit of time.

The near thirty-strong armada looked intimidating as it lumbered through space. Luo Xianni looked like a tiny speck beneath their notice.

That lasted only a moment.

Luo Xianni began to shake and quiver. Soon the tiny woman was a full three thousand meters tall. She’d been standing inconspicuously between the two planets, then suddenly was a significant blip on the pirate radar.

“What… what the hell is that?!” The pirates were dumbfounded. They couldn’t believe what they were looking at.

A person, this big? ‘Giant’ didn’t do her justice, especially as pretty as she was. Where they witnessing some god, come down to the planets of men? Pirates were athiests, practically by definition. But whether they believed in gods or not, it didn’t mean they didn’t fear them.

A particularly fierce looking man was the first to come to his senses. “Kill her! Prepare the guns to fire!”

The armada hurriedly prepared to engage. The enormous woman lifted something in her hands. A pink camera.

Ka-cha! The clear and crisp click of a shutter rang in the ears of every pirate. Everything around them stopped suddenly – frozen in place.

The universe became a pink-hued cosmic storm, with the battleship in its center. Reality warped, chopped into a hundred million tiny slivers. Then it was gone, quiet as a summer breeze.

The Photographer lifted her enormous hand, which now bore an equally large photograph. Something as massive as a battleship would need a picture large enough to fit it. 1

The picture was a thousand meters long and eight hundred meters wide. It didn’t look quite so large in the hand of a three-thousand meter tall woman, though.

She looked at the photo in satisfaction. She didn’t even seem out of breath.

1. I shudder to think what she would have done if they stuck with the ‘photograph a planet’ plan. So here’s one for r/theydidthemath. Apparently the average height of a Chinese woman is 1.6 meters, and they weigh 57.3 kg. While we don’t know the size of a battleship, we can steal. They’ve moved six thousand (?) troops through the Starfields on two ~battleships, so let’s say something like a UNSC Frigate – 478 meters long and unknown mass. Luo Xianni had to grow three thousand meters to get a picture big enough to get the battleship. With this information, A. How large would Luo Xianni have to be to have a poloroid big enough to capture a planet say half the mass of the earth and B. how big would that poloroid be?