Chapter 66:, just a little bit of deception<div>


    Gu Hang deceived Matins.


    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 nned, 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, aary governor and a Starfighter Battle Groupmander werepletely separate entities; there was no subordination to speak of. However, when it came to status, thetter held much greater esteem than the former.<div>


    If it were the heyday of the Phoenix Battle Group, they would dominate their home, where theary 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 weing themander’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 arge-scale war broke out, and if only one Battle Group were involved, the Battle Groupmander would often be the supreme militarymander. The Imperial Navy and the Imperial Star Realm Army might not be nominally under the Battle Group, but they would fully respect themander’s wishes, and even follow theirmands—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 themander’s identity persisted, so there was no way Gu Hang could make a Battle Grouppletely 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 be a Starfighter? It is a very difficult task.


    A ‘Gic Seed’ is needed.<div>


    Once chosen, the candidate would undergo intense gic modification. After enduring one or two years of transformation, allowing the Gic Seed topletely and meticulously alter their entire body, they would be 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 bing a Starfighter.


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


    After the Gic Seed is imnted, enduring the intense modifications is immensely challenging.


    Candidates who aspire to be 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 gic copse 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 gic seeds.


    Soldier sources were rtively easy toe by, as most battle groups had an entire as their recruitment world, their so-called mother. They could select soldiers from a’s poption, choosing the best of the best, generally without worry; even starship-based battle groups could try recruiting on somes. Inducting on aary 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 mosts 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 thetter problem, that of the gic seeds.


    How the Emperor once created the starfighter gic 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 gic 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 yearster but couldn’t be extracted and was only obtainable after their death.<div>


    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 verymon 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 rtively stable source.


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


    On top of that, the surgery for imnting gic 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 gic seed imntation 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 sessfully 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: Gic Seed (Repeatable Event, can be selected indefinitely)]<div>


    [The Phoenix Battle Group hase 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 gic seed, is nowhere to be found. If you had the capacity, how would you choose?]


    [Pay 100 points of Grace to receive one gic 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.