As the memory got clearer, the tiny dragon hatchling suddenly started viewing all the meteorite-shaped starships with immense hostility!
Since Erin was linked to the hatchling, he could feel this hatred vividly.
"Are those things enemies?" Erin was straightforward. His eyes stared directly at the hatchling.
In response, the hatchling projected a memory to Erin. This inherited recollection depicted scenes of powerful dragons in space being slaughtered by the meteorite's motherships. The dragons seem to be protecting a planet behind them.
Although the dragons were powerful and destroyed many ships, these meteorite motherships were too plentiful and killed off the dragons using sheer numbers. The scenes cut off before Erin could see the final outcome of this battle.
Erin frowned deeply. He no longer hesitated. Since the hatchling was his bound creature, its life was connected to Erin. It would never purposely do anything that would be detrimental for Erin.
"AI, mark all the meteorite starships as hostiles. Scan once more and confirm that there are no starships higher than the low fighter grade. Extend this scan to the starships inside the planet's atmosphere as well."
[Understood. Scanning..]
Several seconds later, the verdict was made.
[No higher grade starships have been detected. There are a total of 345 starships. 132 are orbiting the planet and 213 are within the planet's atmosphere.]
"How long would it take to wipe out all of them with the ship's capabilities?"
Erin got straight to the point. He wanted to be as swift as possible to minimize both the risks and his costs.
[The grades of the enemy are too low. If all 78 of the starship's low grade cybertronic-energy missiles launchers are utilized, it will take less than ten seconds to wipe out the 132 orbiting hostile units. This is the most cost-effective action determined by my calculations. The units inside the planet will be alerted.]
[The AI recommends moving slightly closer to the planet first. In approximately three minutes, the starship's attack range will reach all the hostile units within the planet as well. It would take approximately 27 seconds after the initial attack to eliminate all of these hostile units.]
Erin finally relaxed a little bit after hearing these calculations. He doubted that any of these hostile starships could counter attack him within the span of a minute; let alone less than half a minute!
"We shall proceed closer and eliminate all the hostiles at once."
Erin's voice was firm. The longer he waited, the more variables might appear. This is something he wanted to avoid. Especially since he found it odd that there was no mothership in sight.
"Continue to scan the surrounding areas in case new hostiles appear. Notify immediately if anything is detected."
[Understood. Starship's attack plan has commenced. Proceeding forward. Defensive scans are activated; a nano-second basis will be utilized.]
Once all these orders were said and done, Erin simply had to watch the results. Slightly worried, he stared at the meteorite starships intensely.
After the starship got close enough, the projecting scene shifted from the orbiting starships to the starships within the planet's atmosphere. Erin frowned at the incredible destruction that was occurring all throughout this pitiful planet.
For the first time ever, he activated the Command Chair's main holographic control panel. Using it, he adjusted the camera's projection to get a closer view at all the territories inside the planet.
He saw what appeared to be thousands of low grade civilian ships flying to the planet's central continent. All of these starships appeared rusty and broken-down. It didn't help that they were also under heavy fire from the meteoric starships.
The barren destruction on all the other continental landmasses made Erin frown even more. It looked exactly the same as the barren planets that Erin had constantly passed by before! Some of these barren planets had large oceans, yet the continents were dead. Erin always thought that this was very weird. After witnessing this sight, it seems that he had an answer now!
The meteoritic starships were destroying the defenseless civilian grade ships rapidly. The former thousands of ships were now just a few hundred.
At this point, Erin's eyes were bloodshot. He gripped the armrests of his chair while watching this heart wrenching scene.
"Speed up the starship immediately! Increase the shields to maximum power! Prepare the weapons! Fire the moment the target's are locked on!"
Erin was no longer willing to wait. Spending more barrels of fuel to save more lives was worth it to him. Although he wasn't a hero, since his starship could easily destroy all these hostiles, he would feel terrible for not acting sooner.
Erin was well-aware that if the hostiles actually threatened him, he could not be as impulsive as he was acting right now. Thankfully, in this scenario, there were no real threats.
[Understood. Executing all orders.]
The AI's response was prompt. Even though the high intelligent AI knew these actions bore additional risks, it would not question Erin's orders in the slightest.
After speeding up, the starship got close very quickly. All 78 of the starship's low grade cybertronic-energy missile launchers were activated. They locked on targets almost instantaneously and fired several times in a row.
The missiles were composed of very special cybertronic-energy. It would continue to its target even if the target was moving. The speed of these missiles were insanely fast! The hostile units, of which were all low grade fighter starships, didn't stand a chance.
Since launch, there were about 27 seconds until impact. Erin adjusted the command center's projector to display multiple angles. It showed the starships in orbit, the starships in the planet's atmosphere, and the surviving central continent on the planet itself.
Erin also took out a small canister of kettle popcorn from one of his dimensional treasures. He started munching on it as the timer reached 10 seconds. The tiny dragon hatchling watched these missiles happily. It flew next to Erin and also started munching on the kettle popcorn.
Both of them were ready to watch some fireworks.
3.. 2.. 1..
345 explosions occurred throughout both the planet and its surrounding orbit! For Erin, this scene was very satisfying. The sweetness of the kettle popcorn added to this experience.
The hatchling saw the destruction and felt very satisfied. It was pleased that its master was so understanding.
Although the blasts were rough, the shockwaves didn't cause any additional damage for the surviving civilian ships. Only a few civilian ships paused abruptly when they witnessed the hostiles being blown up. Some were still flying away; unaware that they were now saved.
As for the surviving central continent, only a single city managed to hold through all of that destruction! That means, throughout the entire planet, only one city survived!
When Erin had the AI analyze the flight paths of these civilian grade ships, the AI discovered that they were all heading to this one city!
Intrigued, Erin adjusted the projection and zoomed in on this city. Since it was still standing, Erin presumed it was the capital city of this planet.
He saw an enormous plaza with a dimensional gate on it! Compared to the metallic modern ones he has used before, this dimensional gate appeared made of stone and felt rather ancient. Part of its structure was damaged. As a result, there was currently no active portal inside of this gate.
Around this broken and ancient dimensional gate were the blurry figures of many people. There were at least a few thousand. As Erin zoomed in on these figures, he noticed something was off.
In order to see clearer details, he needed to be a lot closer to the planet.
"AI, have the starship approach the planet's orbit quickly."
Now that the hostiles were gone, he was going to check this planet's civilization. He didn't want to blindly travel through space and pass by a bunch of barren planets again. Erin was also hoping to acquire an updated starmap.
Erin temporarily turned off the projection and had the starship enter half-warp speed.
Since there were no hostiles, the starship was able to reach the planet's orbit in mere seconds.
Once it reached orbit, Erin activated the projection once more and directed the camera to the previous scene. He could see the ancient dimensional gate with vivid details now. He could also see thousands of humanoid beings cautiously standing around this dimensional gate. They all had furry ears on the tops of their heads and furry tails behind them.
'These people.. are not humans?!'
Erin was stunned and amazed at the same time. Throughout known history, there have only been humans. Many people even joked around saying that the humans probably scared all the aliens away a long time ago.
With how extremely developed mankind's starship civilization was, they have long since searched through the many life planets inside the known universe. The only exceptions to this were dangerous territories or uncharted deep space. However, after countless explorations, it had long been established that deep space was virtually endless and empty.
There were even explorers that have probably reached the endless netherstorm that Erin saw previously. It's just that they didn't have a mysterious force guide them into a portal at the center of this deadly storm. These explorers could only turn back or face imminent destruction.
Although Erin was very excited, he was also concerned. Looking through all his treasures, he was hoping he had an artifact related to translation. Otherwise, there was a high chance that he couldn't even communicate with these people!
As if understanding Erin's plight, the tiny dragon hatchling flew next to the orb on Erin's waist and poked it.
Erin saw the hatchling's actions and grabbed his orb.
He looked at the orb with a tinge of confusion.
"Are you telling me that this orb has a translation function too?"
Erin honestly asked as he glanced at the hatchling.
When the hatchling nodded in response, Erin smiled and activated his orb. After sending a mental command to activate translation features, the orb automatically lit up and sent a light that flew into Erin's mind.
[Language Conversation has been activated. 345,129 known languages are currently stored on this orb. Would you like to download all of them?]
'Eh?' Erin started sweating a little. He didn't know if downloading all of these languages would hurt his brain's capacity.
Sensing his concerns, the orb automatically updated.
[The user's current level is too low. Only 14,000 languages can be safely downloaded without causing mental damage. Please select which category of languages to download.]
'Which category? How am I supposed to know this?'
Erin sighed. He had no idea what type of language the people on this planet spoke.
[Confusion Detected. The Orb will scan the surroundings for potential language agents.]
Since the projection was still active, the Orb instantly saw the many humanoid beings on the clear display.
[Beastmen Species Detected. 7,923 relevant languages are available. Would you like to download all of them?]
'Beastmen? Never heard of them before.'
Erin was surprised by his orb's efficiency. 'Perhaps this is related to him..?' Erin thought about how the orb updated at the will of the mysterious figure. He didn't know if this language function came standard with the orb. Erin decided that the only way to truly find out was to ask Ron about it next time.
[Download them all.]
A striking pain suddenly took over Erin's mind. Although it was sharp, it lasted only a few seconds before going away entirely. Erin was sweating buckets during those few short seconds.
"Damn, that hurt." Erin didn't expect such an outcome. He thought that it wouldn't be painful since it was under the 14,000 safe limit that the orb mentioned previously.
'Maybe I should download it slower next time?'
Erin noted down this thought. It would save him a lot of hassle when he met another unrecognizable group of people.
Now that he was prepared, Erin equipped a set of cybertronic armor and guns. Since he wanted to leave a good impression, he didn't put on the cybertronic armor's helmet. It would make him appear too distant.
Instead, he took out a protective necklace from his pile of valuable treasures. He put this necklace over the family necklace he always wore. He was now wearing two necklaces.
The protective necklace was a very powerful treasure. It created a passive barrier that was even more defensive than the cybertronic helmet itself! It also made it possible for people to clearly see Erin's entire face as well. This should hopefully prevent them from associating him with whoever those hostile creatures were.
With everything set and done, the dragon hatchling knew that Erin was going to descend into the planet. The hatchling casually settled itself on top of Erin's right shoulder.
By this time, the fleeing civilian ships had all landed at the barely standing capital city.
This city boasted all the remaining survivors of this planet.
Many of the beastmen in this city were still shell-shocked by the turn of events. They didn't understand how their enemies were all destroyed. Furthermore, they were destroyed at the same time! The power needed to do this was actually quite terrifying to them.
The thoughts of these surviving beastmen were soon interrupted.
Erin's starship broke through the planet's atmosphere and appeared above the planet's capital city.
Because the Assegai Exodus II was a Destroyer Class Starship of the Military Grade, the size was immense. The overall volume was comparable to a large city.
This sudden appearance of this enormous ship completely and utterly terrified the tens of thousands of surviving beastmen. Even the faces of their leaders went pale.