Chapter 919: Sovereignty

Following the increase in pirate activity, those financial groups that still dared to brave the risk would hire large amounts of security vessels. When things came down to it, no group was safe. Even the cargo vessels that hoisted the flags of large countries faced the risk of attack. But most fatal was that the core strength of small scale enterprises and tourists had completely abandoned Tita Star. This would directly cause Tita Star’s expansion plans to crumble, and eventually succumb to be one of the large countries’ slaves.

As for Yan Xiaosu being busy after just one night, Zhao Elin was completely supportive. From young, she had been thought that a successful woman should be her husband’s greatest pillar of strength. She now knew that her man was no common person, and after being made aware of Tita Star’s situation, she was also a firm supporter of the Tita people’s resistance against the pirates.

Emergency Pirate Response Conference.

“When weak forces accumulate to a certain critical mass, a qualitative change occurs. The scattered pirates are working together to reach an agreement. There are already large scale organized pirate gangs now.”

Lan Ling introduced the present formations. The situation looked grim. The combined strength of the pirates far surpassed Titatitan Star’s current space defense ability. This bunch of pirates had smelled the sweet profit, and gone crazy for it. Besides, the super-gravity ore black market was extremely hot. It was a seller’s market, and this had sparked this cooperation as well.

Mu Sen frowned. Although he understood that humans were a complex, fickle lot, but he had not anticipated that after rejecting a few large countries’ offers of protection, the response of organizing themselves would come so quickly. Invasion seemed to be a skill ingrained within the genes of humankind… Of course, it was not that pacifistic humans did not exist, only that they were poor defense in the face of absolute power.

Yan Xiaosu had nothing to say as well. Titatitan’s greatest weakness was battleships. There were just too few, and unable to protect Titatitan’s nearby stellar domains. And as for the previous “Successful Balance” which had gained Tita Star the greatest benefits, it had also set up the contradiction. Right now, the main superpowers were watching the fight from the sidelines, waiting for Tita Star to plead for assistance. Once they pleaded, it would mean the one responsible for the situation would be beheaded!

On the ground, Tita Star already had considerable battle power. OMG had completely outfitted the Tita people’s human and giant troops. Wind God and Storm Swordsman were both extremely suited to Tita Star’s situation. The Tita people’s purchases were also OMG’s greatest source of income. It could be said that for ground battles, Tita Star possessed a definite amount of battle power.

But once the battle was in space, Titatitan was as weak as a newborn baby. All they had was a 12-ship destroyer troop, crewed by rookies with no real battle experience! In truth, their power was used to scare average citizens, and maintain order in the starport. But against pirates, who lived their lives in battle, they were even worse than paper tigers.

“Strengthen the security measures, and purchase warships. The old models are ineffective now. To build the crews is the most important thing now.” Mu Sen said, frowning. They would have to move up the purchases as they saw fit. Originally they had a 3-year and 10-year preparation plan to build a completely new fleet of battleships and crew, but now because of the situation, they would have to risk stretching themselves too thin.

Those in the know understood that basic necessities would always be expensive. Although they had the super-gravity ore, but this was not something that could be liquidated instantly. Besides, to preserve the market price, they could not excavate it too fast as well. Tita Star had many things on its agenda, and all of them cost money. One big portion was military spending. Their ground troops had already taken shape, but the majority of the cost would be space troopers. This was not something that could be built in a day. Besides, battle power was not simply about buying warships.

Yan Xiaosu suggested something. “We could petition the Milky Way Alliance to eradicate the pirates, and also send out warnings to the other empires along this stellar region, for them to increase the defenses of the region.”

The Milky Way Alliance would have specialized ways to deal with the pirates. The Alliance’s subordinate fleet biggest job, besides maintaining order, was to hunt down pirates.

“At present, that is all we can do. But the Milky Way Alliance’s efficacy is not that high as well. Piracy is a problem that each country has to deal with. We can only grit out teeth and push through this.” Lan Ling said frustrated. If such a matter could be solved merely by raising an opinion, the pirates would long have disappeared. It was merely addressing the symptoms. In the end, they had to depend on themselves.

The meeting discussion quickly hammered out a proposal. At the same time, Tita Star decided on its purchase direction, towards Arbiter’s newest destroyers.

Arbiter’s attitude was very enthusiastic. They expressed hopes for a in-depth long term discussion with Tita Star, and hoped that they could strengthen their cooperation. But they were vague on the details of the purchase. Nevertheless, this was still good news for Tita Star. At least the other party was interested, and they could talk about the distribution of benefits later.

Once this news was publicized, it helped to apply some pressure on the pirates. Among the galaxy’s nations, Arbiter was pirate-free. All of the pirates had been killed. Pirates on Arbiter were immediately hanged. Although this was denounced by some human rights groups, but Arbiters had always been uncaring towards such things. Have a problem? Bite me then.

Of course, the greatest reason was the unparalleled might of the Arbiter space troopers. If pirates were seen as reckless, Arbiter’s were suicidal. They stayed well away from Arbiter. Pirates were not stupid.

But things did not go as smoothly as they hoped. An unexpected cause started a cascade of events…

“What? The destroyers are being withheld by the Jiro Federation? Why?” Lan Ling was awakened in the middle of the night by a call.

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“Just an hour previously, Jiro Federation and Diweng Alliance submitted a sovereignty dispute letter…” Mu Sen’s voice was cold. Ever since joining the Alliance, Mu Sen’s worries had come to pass one after another. Human society’s disputes were even more complex than he thought.

Diweng Alliance and Jiro Federation were positioned at Titatitan Star’s exit. From an interstellar geographic point of view, Titatitan was sandwiched by these two large nations.

And just an hour before, both nations had almost simultaneously announced “sovereignty” over Tita Star.

In the past, Tita Star was a poor planet not worth mentioning, and nobody had the energy to develop it, especially since it was populated by barbarians, and there were human rights groups opposing it. That was why when the Lan family had entered, they had silently acknowledged it. But now Tita Star had grown to be something much larger, and the dollar signs were in their eyes.

Historically, Diweng Alliance and Jiro Federation had indeed fought over planets near to Titatitan Star, and some small-scale skirmishes had broken up. But in the end, this planet had deemed to be unprofitable, and the 2 countries had resolved the dispute. Such border disputes were nothing new.

Until now, when Titatitan Star had begun to prosper. The 2 countries had started the dispute again, creating a tense mood in the region.

That the pirates had recently become bold, and even organized themselves, cast the whole matter into doubt.

The real strength of the pirates did not lie in their numbers, but that they could disperse all over the universe, and one ship could rob alone, whereas the military could not separate their troops to deal with pirates.

And now, the pirates had actually formed an organization in the vicinity of Titatitan Star… surrendering their strongest natural advantage against the military.

Were these real pirates? Or fake pirates? Or a mix of both…

Lan Ling looked at the report, and felt uncommon frustration. This was a baseless dispute. “Back then, they fought over neighboring planets’ sovereignties. Our Titatitan Star was not within those boundaries.”

Although that was true, but planetary sovereignty was the most common diplomatic tussle in the galaxy. Most of the time, the wrangling solved nothing. In the end, it boiled down to who had the bigger fist.

“For now, let’s appeal to the Federation.” Lan Ling said in frustration.

Mu Sen shook his head. “I’ve analyzed humankind’s disputes. The Federation is a place for wrangling, but solves nothing. Since such a thing has happened, I suspect they have already made considerable preparations. This is no spur of the moment decision. We need to make other preparations.”

“Elder Mu Sen speaks truth. The Federation is a political organization. But one point: according to Federation law, when a planet’s indigenous people enter the Milky Way Alliance, sovereignty should return to them. That means that Tita Star representatives are the Tita people, while humans are simply cooperation partners. Their claims have no basis.” Yan Xiaosu said.

Lan Ling laughed bitterly. “They have no intention of basing their claims. They’re just looking to start a fight. They will trace Tita Star back to the time before Tita people had reached what we are today. They will say that when it was unqualified to join the Alliance, the sovereignty still belonged to humans.”

The message between the lines was asking if you would talk about territorial rights with animals. It was just a matter of twiddling the chronology. In the end, it still came down to who could back their words with military power.

Mu Sen frowned. In the end it was profit. This obstacle was difficult for Tita Star. The key was not just Jiro and Diweng, but the strength that they represented. It was inconceivable that there was no puppet master behind the scenes.

The next day, Jasper and Gabre anxiously held a phone conference.

The military dispute between Diweng Alliance and Jiro Federation was even more serious than the pirate issue. Some of the ongoing investments had been urgently halted, and a few of the negotiated business plans had been postponed as well. One could expect that the longer this dragged out, the more business deals would be called off.

An imminent battlefield was a huge risk to business groups, who would stop the next tier of investments into Tita Star. Especially the smaller enterprises, who were even more sensitive to risk.