On the dark side of the planet, the situation was moving along just as Morgiana had anticipated.

Omid, clad in a heavy piece of armor that matched his frame, looked at the partially destroyed ship with a clear interest in his eyes.

Everywhere, small drones were flying and filming the scene, analyzing the slightest hints to bring forward a reconstruction of the event that had transpired when the ship crashed onto the surface of this icy hell.

Beside him, people of different forms moved and busied themselves, creating teams to act independently and do their respective tasks.

"Captain, we are ready for deployment."

Omid nodded in acknowledgment, his face still stoic behind his helmet. He may be a bandit but he knew that one needed a certain demeanor to keep inspiring respect from their underlings. It was one of the most important traits of a leader.

Thanks to this comportment, his team had always been very efficient, unlike the ragtag group of the other pirate heads.

"How is the reconstruction of the events coming along?"

"80% complete. Still processing some more information."

"Then we wait. Also, keep the ship running. Be ready to run for your life at any given moment."

Omid was strong. He believed in his strength and used it to reach his current standing in the Forty Thieves.

But in the scale of the universe or even this galaxy, he was merely a speck of dust. Nothing worth mentioning.

Dorothy and the Emerald City meanwhile, were one of the true giants of this galaxy. Trying to fight them without the cooperation of the full Forty Thieves would be suicidal at best.

They needed to make sure no space-jamming mechanisms were installed around without them noticing.

Capturing Morgiana was very important so they had to bear the pressure even though it was quite risky.

"Yes sir!"

They saluted and continued their work, many of them adjusting their weapons and arsenal to pass the idle time.

Finally, a few minutes later, the reconstruction was complete.

"It's running."

A two-meter-tall woman with only one giant eye in the middle of her forehead swiped on a screen and holographic figures began to appear all around them in the form of Augmented Reality.

"After escaping from our pursuit, the target's ship had been badly damaged, forcing her to crash land."

Despite how rough her body looked, her voice was surprisingly sweet. This gave a weird feeling of dissonance but it was nothing unbearable.

She pointed at different points and traced the direction to the place where the crash landing took place.

"Until then, nothing particularly special occurred. She got ejected from her ship as expected and was most likely in a comatose state as her AI companion repaired the damage."

"What generation is the AI?"

"The exact generation is unknown but viewing the response in time of urgency, it's either a very old model or Morgiana placed strict guidelines on the model to restrict its functions. Anyway, this is where things start to become interesting."

Omid nodded his head. In the past, the AIs caused a great war and because of this, all AI was suppressed to avoid the birth of new sentient beings among them.

Even then, AI in the current generation had a semi-freedom of action after the Empire concluded the negotiations with the Father of all True AI.

Geppetto.

Frowning at the memory of the old man, Omid couldn’t help but shiver ever so slightly. Eventually, he decided to draw his full focus to the matter at hand.

The woman, who seemed to be from a species of cyclops, started walking ahead while following the light of the drone and stopped at a certain place.

"Here… Someone or something came here. There is no trace of blood but the analysis is absolute."

Omid's eyes twinkled.

"Life?"

They were not able to scan the planet because of a lack of equipment. More importantly, none of them would have ever guessed that such a planet could give birth to true sentient life.

In this galaxy of theirs, the number of crazy bastards who would pay even in gold only to obtain a few strange specimens from planets never discovered was astronomical, to say the least.

He immediately signaled his men to prepare a small team for the capture of any living organism.

Slave business was heavily limited by the Empire. This is why it was more rewarding in the black market.

The female cyclops ignored the movement of her Captain. She knew very well that if they hadn't been pressed for time, they would have raided the whole planet.

On a planet with life, the planet itself was worth far more than the residents sometimes. After all, natural planets that could hold and nurture life would always be in demand no matter which part of the galaxy they belonged to.

"This is where things get a little weird. The reading of the person is hard to keep track of. But the danger level should be relatively low. The density of Dark Matter Energy on this planet is extremely low after all."

Dark Matter was quite literally everywhere. It was usually invisible to the naked eye or any machine for that matter.

But in some cases, some places had a slight leak of energy from the constituent Dark Matter.

The level of this leak would affect the development of the planet and the inhabitants that inhabited said planet.

The more energy from the Dark Matter that leaked into a planet, the more pricey it would become.

At the time, when the planet was still untouched, the level of density of the Dark Matter Energy would determine what kind of creatures could be met.

"It seems like Morgiana was able to have a conversation with the individual. At the very least, there is no sign of combat or any traces of Flame Energy being used."

"If she was able to communicate, does it mean it's a member from an already known race?"

"Yes."

The interracial communicators were not some almighty machines. They could only use languages already present in the database and extrapolate new variants of the languages in case of a large amount of time between the latest updates.

"Either way this is still a huge discovery."

Omid was now sure. He had already made his plans but there was nothing wrong with taking time to confirm what was once nothing but mere speculations.

"The plan is simple, everyone. Morgiana is a Djinn. But she is simply a member of the Red Flame Qabila. She will have to reach the bright side of the planet to have a chance to even get some of her powers back after wasting everything on healing herself from the crash."

Omid was a Djinn himself and he knew very well what Morgiana would need at the moment.

“With her personality, the chances of her coming at us are extremely low, but not nonexistent. So from now on, everyone will be in power armor and ready to activate their respective Mecha."

He grinned and patted Morgiana’s ship with his hand,

"This is an old series of Mecha so we don't have to worry about anything else."

A disdainful smile was present on his face. He could have never imagined that Alibaba and Morgiana would fall so low.

'It's just trash…'

"Honestly, even if she came back I think we can destroy her Mecha with ease."

They started laughing out loud. After inspecting the crash site, it was easy to see that Morgiana lived a very hard life where she had to be frugal and choose her equipment wisely.

"Let's go, everyone."

It was time for them to hunt. At least this was what should have been the plan but—

"Captain! The radar is warning us. Someone is walking towards us. Two people, to be exact."

Was Morgiana already back? It did not matter. He did not need to think too much about this.

It was time to finally capture her.

***

The pirates had loosely scattered themselves around throughout the icy hell of the terrain, entering a battle formation, as they waited for the intruders to reach them.

They were waiting and observing the intruders’ every action using their equipment. After all, despite their recklessness, the pirates could not live long if they did not learn how to assess danger and adequately counter all of it.

It didn't take long for them to see who the pair of intruders were exactly. They were quite surprised by what registered in their vision through the glass screens of their hefty armor suit.

They had expected to see Morgiana in the flesh, coupled with another individual that they had no idea who was. They might look down on her now, but when she was in her prime all those years ago, Morgiana was more than a bit renowned throughout the Sea of Stars. She was a powerhouse and a beacon of awe and respect, that only amplified for the Forty Thieves.

However – instead of Morigiana in her armor, ready to fight them with her life on the line – what they saw was a young man entirely covered in fur from head to toe, running with an expression of panic and desperation on his childish face as he held onto a motionless Morgiana on his back. He seemed to be running from something or someone, running for his life.

The cold sweat running along his forehead, immediately crystalizing into icy droplets due to the effects of the weather. The look of exhaustion and desperation that was marring his youthful face along with the blood spattered all over his body were telltale signs of the situation at hand.

｢Prepare for fire.｣

Discreetly, Omid sent the order through the intercom. The situation was quite complicated and he didn’t have enough information on him to get a complete grasp of everything.

Warning signs immediately blared on their visors as the female cyclops input the numbers on her computer.

“Boss! Something monstrously big is coming our way!”

She shouted out loud and Omid couldn’t help but scoff to himself. Indeed, his instincts had warned him of incoming danger long ago. It seemed like this beast or whatever it may be was the cause for the feeling of danger that he had been experiencing.

Soon, they were able to see the silhouette of a giant monster slithering through the icy terrain as it chased after the young man and the motionless Morgiana tightly bound to his back.

The fact that such a young boy was able to run with Morgiana in full armor on his back was impressive in itself, definitely worth a second look, but the kid was reaching his limit already. His face was practically screaming the state of exhaustion he was currently under; it was quite clear that he would not be able to run for very long.

“It’s… It’s a fucking Abyss Beast! What the fuck!!”

The indifference in Omid's eyes immediately vanished and all the other soldiers exploded in a chorus of chaos and ruckus. There was a vast difference between beasts made of blood and bones, even mechanical beasts that were fully automated, compared to beasts from the Deep Abyss.

Those were real monsters. Fucking dangerous monsters that were notoriously hard to kill. However, at the same time, they were the telltale signs of the single most important thing to the people in their line of work — Wealth.

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“Save them! Save them at any cost!”

Omid was very decisive. Capturing Morgiana was more of a goal for Cassim, the leader of their organization, than anyone else in the entirety of the Forty Thieves. But getting rich was a completely different matter altogether. Otherwise, why would he even become a pirate in the first place? Wealth was the calling in life for all pirates and they could sell anything and everything for wealth, including their souls.

Abyss beasts were incredibly rare creatures. Their presence in space could be observed once in a blue moon at most. And their presence on a planet delivered many implications— implications that they were about to become crazy rich or die trying.

He could not let the boy die now. He had to squeeze out as much information as possible for the greatest value and he needed to be decisive about it.

The pirates were hesitant inwardly but outwardly, they immediately jumped into action the moment they received the order from their Captain. Omid had always been very strict when it came to rules and the enforcement of said rules and they knew very well that those who broke or even thought of breaking his orders didn’t have a good ending.

Some of them entered the spacecraft and activated the cannons to start aiming at the beast while others took swords and guns out of their armor, rushing toward the beast at supersonic speeds.

Swords may seem like outdated weapons at first glance but they were in fact very important when it came to facing the abyss beasts and other beasts of similar nature.

After all, their defense was very hard to break with modern energy weapons. The swords they were holding were of good craftsmanship. They were weapons stolen from a cargo destined for the Imperial Soldiers fighting at the very borders of space.This was actually one of the reasons why the bounty of their group climbed abnormally high despite their relatively low rank.

The fight that broke out when they faced the abyss beast, mirroring the image of a snake, was intense to say the least.

The cannon shells could hardly penetrate the hardened scales of the snake. The swords, while efficient in combating the beast, could not go deep enough since they neither had the power to fully activate those weapons nor the strength to push deeper in one go in the flesh of those gigantic monstrosities.

Furthermore, the snake was no pushover. Being an abyss beast already made it at the very top of the monster hierarchy. It was not letting itself simply get beaten passively. The snake was quite powerful. Perhaps not enough to have fully mutated into a true abyss beast but the physical body of this monster alone was enough for them to swear like sailors at having to face it.

They had to be careful in each and every single one of their steps. They needed to take measures to not get swallowed by it. This was not easy by any means as many of them were not used to fighting on slippery surfaces or any ground at all for that matter. Space battles were their usual flair and fighting in Mechas were the norm for the pirates in Omid’s crew.

Using Mechas in this atmosphere while under normal or high gravity was simply asking to be beaten by Mother Nature herself. It was also normal for them to not even touch the ground for months or even years while traveling through the endless sea of deep space.

Thankfully for them, they were still experienced fighters, and while one was put out of commission after making a mistake and getting his arm bitten off and then torn apart brutally by the abyss monster snake, the others did not even hesitate to use him as bait to put an end to this fight once and for all; pushing through for a decisive final strike.

[Super Charge ready in 3… 2… 1]

“Wait!”

[… 0!]

Immediately, all but one of them moved away in complete synchronization and watched as the laser blast from one of the main ships tore apart the Snake from the head up to the middle of its body. The one who had been caught in its maws did not even have the chance to cry further as he was destroyed alongside the monster, leaving the other pirate who had been saved by him completely silent.

They did not gloat at the misfortune of the man who had died. They knew very well that this could have been any one of them. This was the way of their crew, their creed. If the sacrifice of one was necessary to save the majority then that member had to be sacrificed for the greater cause. No questions asked.

The only reason this barbaric system did not create fissures in the crew was because their Captain kept himself to the same standard as the others. More than just once he even used himself as bait when he deemed it to be necessary to decisively maneuver through their circumstance.

If even the Captain was not exempt then what ground did they have to complain? Even so, watching a companion die was never a pleasant feeling, much worse was having to put him up on the pedestal of a sacrifice.

Dark blood exploded like a fountain, slightly corroding all the armor it fell on. This was one of the properties of abyss beasts. Their very blood was poisonous by nature. However, once processed properly, it could become an extremely effective tonic that would boost the metabolism and other innate abilities of the user.

“Shit! Why is there such a tough abyss beast on this god-forsaken planet!? Fucking shit, fuck!!”

One of the pirates kicked the corpse of the abyss beast in frustration and agony. The one who died had been his friend. He had nearly got devoured by the beast a few moments ago as well if not for being helped out of that situation by said friend. As if all of that shit wasn’t enough, the energy reserves of his armor were falling dangerously low in numbers and the cost of resupplying it was not something he could easily afford without going into some debt.

Unlike the few higher-ups of his crew, he was part of the vast majority of people who could not harness Dark Matter and subsequently Dark Matter Energy directly through their bodies and had to use special weapons and armor to channel and extract them from the surroundings.

Thanks to being part of the Forty Thieves, he had good equipment but the maintenance cost was no joke by any means. This was the way of management to keep them always thirsty for battle and riches but there was nothing he could do about it. It was his way of life, the way of life of all pirates in the Forty Thieves.

Watching the rain of blood fall on his body, he could already see the floating credits flying away from his coffers.

｢Did he have any family?｣

“A daughter and a few lovers that I know of. Not much else.”

｢Very well, the rule is the same. Everyone will pitch 2% of their revenue for the incoming mission and I will prepare the rewards for the family of the bereaved. Prepare his assets as well. If there is no family then the full reward will be given to the closest friend.｣

This was another reason why no one complained.

Money.

Most pirates did not have any family to care about. So when one of them died, their friends had a high chance of receiving a small bonus.

As disgusting as it was, this rule made the pirates in Omid’s crew very friendly to each other. After all— you never knew when your friend could die and leave you a beautiful heritage to splurge.

In fact, sometimes it was hard to say whether one died by accident or because of said friend.

Once Omid brought back order in the crew wrought in chaos, he finally gazed at the true prize and the cause of all this fiasco.

“So, boy… Why don’t you tell me more about you?”

Omid had to admit— the fear that the young boy was showing him was completely to his taste. He loved that feeling of power as he watched people filled with terror bowing to him.

“Why don’t we start simply? What is your name?”

“My name is… Noah…”

“Noah, heh… I feel like we are going to share a wonderful adventure ahead.”

Noah gave a trembling smile as he nodded his head,

“I feel the same. Hahah…”

Omid had to say. It was only for an instant but— that laugh had given him a very unpleasant and sickening feeling. His instincts were firing some minor alarms but it was nothing special.

He dismissed this feeling. It seemed like he had been too high-strung lately.

Now, it was time to question this new guest of theirs.

He was going to suck him dry of every bit of value he would be able to provide them. He needed to cover their losses after all.

“Are you guys Morgiana’s friends?” Noah asked.

“Did Morgiana show you her face already?” Omid did not directly answer.

“Yes, she has.”

“Then… it should be easier this way…”Omid chuckled to himself. He could easily see the wariness in the kid’s face as he observed them with vigilance and fear. Taking off his helmet, he showed him his face as well.

His charcoal-dark skin was engraved with two yellow tattoo-like streams of lines that seemed to be flowing like a river; the streams of yellowish current flowed down the sides of his face and extended toward his throat, disappearing under his suit— it was similar to the esoteric formations and carvings that Morgiana had in her body. It was safe to assume that they were from the same race. Well, at least, to a lower being like him, it would seem to be the case.

“I am a Djinn; just like Morgiana. You might not know what this essentially means but our race is deemed to be a very prestigious and noble race in the entirety of this galaxy. As for my relationship with Morgiana… Let’s just say that I have seen her grow from a little girl to a very impressive woman in her own right.”

He smiled softly as he spoke, very careful in choosing the words he wanted to deliver to the little boy before him.

Some species in this vast universe had the power to tell lies apart from the truth; it was a sensory ability that went beyond simple perception. This was why he avoided answering the first question directly and went on a roundabout way, just to be safe.

As for the words that he had muttered, he was not lying in the exact sense. Actually, all of it was the truth, just the meaning they implied was not something anyone could easily guess unless they knew their history.

Indeed, he had known Morgiana ever since she was a young child. He had seen her struggles. He witnessed her rise and was part of her fall from grace and her current cumbersome situation.

It was truly a complicated relationship like no other. One that would soon end in his favor.

It was also possible that the young boy was an Esper with mind-reading ability. In which case there wasn't much he could do.

Such thoughts hovered in his head as he looked at Morgiana, lying down on the side encased in her red armor and without any signs of conscience.

“Now that I have answered your question, why don’t you answer mine as well? We came to recover Morgiana from this planet. She is being chased by the Forty Thieves. They are a dangerous group of criminals who are wanted throughout the galaxy. What happened to her for her to be in such a state?”

No matter how injured she was or how low she had fallen, Morgiana was no pushover. It was surprising to see her being wounded to such a degree, so much so that she was unconscious and unresponsive.

Furthermore, from the damage that he was able to sense from her armor, it looked like she had been in a precarious situation. The armor could hardly repair itself and was entirely focused on healing her. This meant that whatever problem she had been facing was likely something that could cause trouble for themselves. If not, then it could only mean one other thing…

“This…”

The boy Noah trembled even more, seemingly remembering the horrifying experience that Morgiana and he had encountered, but started to explain to the best of his abilities,

“Miss Morgiana wanted me to guide her to some place. Some kind of ruin she said. She explained that it was a very dangerous place and that we needed to be 100% sure of its existence otherwise this place would be in danger.”

He spoke quickly as if he was vomiting all the words that came up to his throat and was wishing for nothing more than to be done with this story. His childish face was morphed into fear and a sense of anxious desperation.

“Oh…?”

“All of this started because of this thing here.”

Shuffling for something inside of his furry clothes, he took out a yellow rock and showed it to them. Almost immediately, a hushed silence ensued as all the pirates gazed at the rock in Noah’s hand simultaneously, their eyes shining like they had hit the jackpot.

Omid had to fight the urge to gulp down when his hypothesis that the presence of an Abyss Beast was indeed proof of gold existing in this place came to be true.

It was with a supreme force of will that he did not simply take out his gun and start threatening the young boy to spill out everything he knew while snatching the piece of gold from his hands.

He understood very well that haste would only yield them nothing but damage in this scenario. Furthermore, information obtained through threats and torture could rarely be considered to be reliable in the truest sense of the word.

‘Calm down. I need to calm myself down.’

He chanted inwardly as if he were singing a mantra to bring serenity and rationality back to his mind, things that had flown out of the window the moment he had seen the solid piece of gold.

The pirates standing behind him were far more restless than him. Only their fear of Omid helped them in barely reigning in their greed and standing in place.

However, almost all of them were akin to a powder keg, ready to explode at any given moment with the faintest presence of a spark; and this was something that Omid fully understood.

For all their discipline, they were pirates at heart. Ruffians who had left their homes in search of wealth, with the readiness to embrace death along their journey at any given time.

He always moved with the clear knowledge that those who listened to him like well-tamed dogs right now, might change into greedy wolves and rise to a mutiny at any moment if given the opportunity and enough incentive.

His authority was only worth it as long as he could bring them substantial and tangible benefits as well as victory in their endeavors.

He already made a discreet signal with his hand— to make sure they all understood that they had to wait and not be too hurried. Otherwise things would fall apart for them and they would lose this unexpected avenue of wealth just as suddenly as they had chanced upon it.

“This is… quite the impressive find you have there. Did Morgiana tell you what this is?”

Noah cutely tilted his head to the side, “This is gold, right? She told me we could have a part of whatever we found once she left this planet.”

“Heh…”

‘Oh Morgiana dear, you are still as dumbly kind and naive as I remember you to be.’

Had it been anyone else, Omid would have suspected that they were fooling the pitiful kid, and for good reason to boot.

After all, while this wasn’t some kind of instant fortune that would make you own the galaxy in one go, this discovery was more than enough to make sure one never lacked much of anything for life and perhaps could go even beyond that, depending on how big the ruins were and the resources they could recover from said ruins.

However, Morgiana? She was different from them.

Like Cassim and even Alibaba for that matter, Freedom, Fairness and Equality were her motto in life.

The only difference was that, unlike Alibaba and Morgiana, Cassim was a veritable realist who did not let his illusions and ideals, as well as wishes, stop him from understanding what he had to do in order to reach the goals he set out in his life.

The more Noah spoke, the clearer a vivid picture was being drawn in Omid’s mind; he visualized the path ahead for them on this rusty planet.

“We were close to the ruins but we got ambushed by the beast… Morgiana pushed me away and fought the beast to the best of her abilities even though she had not fully recovered herself. She told me to flee, but I couldn’t leave her alone.”

‘Sounds like Morgiana alright.’

By now Omid was completely convinced about the authenticity of the situation.

“Tell me… Could you lead us to that place?”

Noah looked at them with suspicion before gazing at the fallen Morgiana. In the end, he asked, his voice trembling as he asked them the question raging in his mind,

“Will you… Will you take care of her first?”

“Of course. This has been our goal from the start after all. We will do everything in our power to keep her alive and running.”

Once again he was not lying about this matter. They would do anything and everything to keep Morgiana alive. At least, for now, that is. As for what happened after she outlived her usefulness? It was for Cassim to decide and them to follow through.

They had to keep Morgiana alive to bring Alibaba into their clutches after all. Killing her immediately had never been the goal from the get-go.

‘Furthermore— we might be able to bring her in as well.’

Their true enemy and the true big fish they wanted to catch in this whole operation. In the end, Morgiana was nothing more than bait for the true big guns. Be it for this side or the other side.

She was quite the pitiful girl in a way, used and abused as she was. Not that it mattered to him in the slightest. She could only blame herself for being too weak to fight for her own Fate.

Signaling the Cyclops scientist to come and take Morgiana with her, Omid directly sent her a message.

｢Put her in the Healing Pod but also add some sedatives into the mix. It’s better to keep her asleep until we need her to wake up.｣

｢Understood.｣

“Then. Dear little friend…?”

The boy seemed suspicious but he could ignore those suspicious points until he obtained what he wished for from him.

“Noah.”

“Noah, yes, that’s a good name. Noah, would you like anything else? We need to go and investigate the ruins as fast as possible. We are pressed for time, after all.”

“Then, Could you give me something to eat…? I am starving.”

“Sure. We will make sure you eat until you burst, in fact.”

“Hahaha. I will keep you to your word.”

The two men laughed, both hiding daggers behind their hearty smiles.