"So... well... I died as it seems? Then I woke up as a character from an online science fiction game... And the craziest thing was that I was in my personal spaceship... Aside from that, I have this weird gaming system bugging me with missions and stuff... So... finally, something interesting happened in my life at last. At least now, I am unbound by anything and can do as I wish." - Acturus Al-Yesod Crawford "In the grim darkness of the endless space, there is only one sole constant that has ruled the space since immemorial, that dictated the life and death, the order and chaos of every single living being. Power. This is the story of one of the most controversial people in the history of the Known Universe, Arcturus Al-Yesod Crawford, the Star Mercenary, Bounty Hunter, Trader and many other titles..." - Prologue Chronicles of the Known Universe: Chapter Star Citizen, Star Date: Unknown *** Tags: Aliens, Androids, Army, Army Building, Automatons, Assassins, Artificial Intelligence, Cosmic Wars, Fleet Battles, Futuristic Setting, Male Protagonist, Mercenaries, Monsters, Outer Space, Nobles, Late Romance, Slow Romance, Money Grubber, Supernatural Powers, Psychic Powers, System, Game Elements, Strategic Battles, Strong to Stronger, Transported into a Game World, Wars, Evolution, Genetic Modifications, Industrialization, Military, Politics, Poor to Rich, Strength-Based Social Hierarchy, Time Skip
Several days passed since Arcturus arrived at the Lycurgos Starfort which was located in the center of the Rylon Star System.
Right now, he was in the hotel room of the single hotel of the Lycurgos Starfort that was located in a certain sort of Residential District of the Starfor. He still had enough UCs to pay for the hotel even for several years if he wished so and he was very satisfied.
Even though he expected something more high-tech, the interior of the hotel reminded him of the Victorian Age of Earth. Just in the architecture, similar to the interior of his personal chambers of the Obscurus.
Aside from the various high-tech gadgets that were all around, Arcturus was presently screening the Bounties and Mission within the Alaric Star Domain.
Star Domain consisted of several Star Systems, whereas every Star System was basically like the Rylon Star System. There was a Star or Stars in the center of the System, with several planets and other celestial bodies orbiting around the said Star or Stars.
Alaric Star Domain was one of the Star Domains that created the Ruusor Star Sector, which was the Frontier Border with the no-man zone, behind which was one of the main opponents of the Imperium, Veredan Republic.
Aside from that, there were several Type 2 Star Nations and civilizations not very far from the Alaric Star Domain. Just the Alaric Star Domain consisted of several tens of Star System and thousands of planets, and this was just one of the smaller Star Domains.
"Surprisingly, there are a lot of jobs within the Alaric Star Domain, Wildstar Region, and Chep Star Sector where the Chepotian Free Union is."
Wildstar Region was actually very interesting place, but one filled with countless dangers, especially because it was swarming with Space Pirates, Ravangers, Criminals, Militias and even Space Beasts.
Though, it was huge... the entire Wildstar Region was as big as entire Star Segemnet, which translated to the Star Systems would be around in thousands, at least two or three thousand Star System.
In fact, the Wildstar Region was home to countless space-faring nations, albeit it was a dangerous place because only a few of them could survive there. It was a place where the strong preyed on the weak, like in the rest of the known universe...
But within the Wildstar Region, it was taken to the utmost extremes.
Then, there was the Chepotian Free Union, which was one of the peculiar space-faring nations.
Approximately three hundred years ago, it was apparently part of the Wildstar Region, but a few of the most advanced civilizations banded together and pooled together their resources to create the Chepotian Free Union to defend themselves against pirates, ravagers, slavers, and other scum of the universe.
"Oh... this is a bit interesting."
Arcturus then stopped on one peculiar Mission that was published through the Star Mercenary Association.
[Mission: Extermination of the Solar Cult
Location: Helios IV
Reward: 50,000 Universal Credits.]
'Alice, search any information about the Solar Cult, possible Bounties included.'
He ordered his A.I. who was already stronger than before, as she assimilated the Basic Artificial Intelligences of the Droids that were delivered to the Obscurus and with her access to the Imperial NetSpehere and Extranet, she was constantly evolving.
'Information found. Solar Cult was founded, or rather, it appeared in Helios IV, one of the planets of the Helios Star System, which is one of the founding members of the Cheptian Free Union approximately five years ago. They are a bunch of weirdos who are worshipping concepts of sun and light and want for the Heliosian to revert back to the time when their planet was closed from the wider universe. At the same time, their popularity is rising significantly, to the point where they even have armed militias, and the support of the people is high.'
Arcturus was absorbing everything that the Red Queen was telling him with instantaneous speed.
'And their numbers? Bounties?'
50,000 Universal Credits was a lot.
In fact; most of the other missions were not this well paid, though, at the same time, he lacked access to the high-ranking missions within the Star Mercenary Association.
Contrary to the Bounty Hunter Guild, where anyone could take the Bounty as long as they killed the target, the Star Mercenary Association was operating on a different modus operandi...
'Their core numbers are small, only a few tens, but their militia is numbering in thousands. Of the members, only three of them have Bounties within the Bounty Hunter Guild, namely their Prophet has a Bounty of 10,000 Universal Credits, and two of their Militia Generals 5,000 Universal Credits each.'
So, altogether, it would be 70,000 Universal Credits for one mission... that was a lot as he immediately accepted the mission when he saw where their headquarters was.
Located on the small moon that was orbiting the Helios IV.
'With my spaceship, I would be able to destroy their base without any problem, and with a few Droids, I should be able to kill whatever remains.'
He had four combat droids, namely the Spider Bastion Droids, which were basically top-notch of Imperial Technology. From what he understood, the Chepotian Free Union was a technologically very diverse nation.
It was the Union in the true sense; they didn't even have a military, but rather, their military was the military of all member states and planets, and each of them had a different technological level.
Apparently, the Helios IV was one of the more advanced nations, as their technology level was around early Type 2 civilization. Yet, that was not enough in front of the Spider Bastion Droids that were created by the Starlight Drive Yard Industries.
'Master, according to my calculations, there is 98,88% of completing the Mission without any losses. From what I've seen, while the Cult of Sun has some advanced technology, they have only kinetic-based projectile weaponry, albeit very advanced one... it won't be enough to penetrate through the most advanced shields that are on the Spider Bastion Droids.'
This calmed Arcturus down considerably because he was aware that with Red Queen controlling the Droids, she was able to control them far more effectively than any Basic Artificial Intelligence could.
Naturally, this only increased their combat prowess several times over and over.