There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

…………

"Run! Those guys are coming out!"

The sudden breakout and charge dealt a huge psychological blow to the pirates. The pirate squads deployed at the front were taking advantage of the fatigue in their fighting force to rotate shifts, while half of the pirates were withdrawn as ordered to defend the harbor lighthouse.

Therefore, the fierce attack instantly tore through their crumbling defenses, reminding them of the scene of these terrifying creatures attacking them in the early morning.

The second line of defense had slightly more men, but they were also routed with almost no resistance. Countless fleeing soldiers broke out from within the defensive line and spearheaded the attack on their own third line of defense.

The pirate henchmen were also mixed in with the crowd, helping the pirate captain, who had injured his leg, as they fled together.

"Run! They're catching up!" The pirate henchmen ran forward in a panic, getting closer and closer to the safe line.

However, Blackbeard's underling braced himself against the ground with his uninjured leg, resisting any attempt to move forward.

"Boss, what are you doing! We're almost there, just hang in there!" The henchman anxiously tried to grab his waist and push him forward.

But the pirate leader gritted his teeth and said, "No! Change direction! That road is blocked!"

After saying that, the two of them started running to the side, breaking away from the main group of fleeing pirates.

The pirate henchman glanced longingly at the safe zone that was so close at hand. "Boss...why don't we go over there?"

The pirate leader said angrily, "Forget it! They won't let us near the defensive line. We're too close to the enemy! If it were me, I would force these people to serve as cannon fodder at gunpoint and turn back to continue fighting!"

A chill ran down the spine of one of the pirate henchmen, and he asked uneasily, "Blocked in front and being chased from behind...aren't we doomed if the person who gets past us gets to die?"

Two pirates hid behind a broken wall. The pirate leader peeked out and looked into the distance: "Not necessarily... Let me see what they're doing. Their command style today is giving me the creeps. Luckily, you managed to snag the invulnerable armor..."

While he was secretly congratulating himself on his wisdom, he saw that the situation in the distance was exactly as he had predicted. The third line of defense, which was originally the main defensive line, had opened fire without hesitation, killing several pirates running in front and forcing them to turn back and continue fighting.

But the situation is far from optimistic.

The burly pirates were clearly at a disadvantage when facing these skinny, bamboo-like enemies. Although they had a slight advantage in strength, they were no match for their opponents in terms of reaction speed, agility, and stamina.

These helmeted enemies also looked exhausted, yet their faces wore a deathly indifference. After eliminating the enemies with close-range shooting, they didn't hesitate to draw their daggers and engage in hand-to-hand combat, precisely stabbing the pirates in vital areas with their daggers.

The fierce fighting on the front lines did not affect the firing from the rear, but the pirates were cruel by nature and did not shy away from firing even when their teammates were nearby. After a barrage of fire, the armored enemy was unharmed, while their own pirates suffered heavy casualties, and their morale plummeted.

"Oh no! They're going to use that trick!" the pirate leader, who was secretly watching, cried out in alarm, his eyes filled with terror.

The henchmen, who had been trembling in the trenches, praying that the enemy wouldn't find them, stood up upon hearing this and looked at the battlefield not far away with a puzzled expression.

But the scene that appeared the next second almost froze his blood!

Behind the fierce third battle line, a row of strong and muscular pirates suddenly appeared, throwing out some round objects in unison. Then everyone quickly dove to the ground to hide.

These spheres traced an arc and landed amidst the chaotic battle between friend and foe, while the pitiful creatures stood frozen in place...

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A series of massive explosions, occurring with a slight time difference, began. The brilliant flames illuminated the night sky, even outshining the distant rays of the setting sun sinking into the sea!

The explosion created a wall of smoke that blocked everyone's view, through which only countless limbs and fragments could be vaguely seen flying and falling. The houses in the area were completely overturned, destroyed, collapsed, and cracked, turning into a postmodern hell on earth.

Those who died instantly in the grenade explosion were incredibly lucky. Many more, whose legs were blown off or who had lost their lower bodies, were still crawling horribly on the ground.

Their eyes and ears had failed them; they could only wail and reach out their hands, trying to grasp the hand of rescue they imagined in their minds.

They probably couldn't believe until their deaths that they had not only become pawns in the battle, but also bait for their prey, sacrificing themselves in a place just a hair's breadth away from their own people.

The thick, murky wall of smoke resembled the pent-up resentment of the unjustly killed, rising into the sky and refusing to dissipate. It drifted slowly with the wind toward the pirates' defenses, gradually encroaching upon their own camp.

Chapter 462 Board Jump! Board Jump!

Due to the direction of the sea breeze, the smoke wall slowly crossed the trenches made of sandbags and furniture, blocking their view from the inside out.

A massive plume of black smoke instantly enveloped the third line of defense...

At this moment, a commotion broke out in the tavern in Sabre Bay.

The caravan stationed there was terrified. There were gunfights and explosions outside, and the sounds were getting closer and closer to the seaside tavern. This led them to find the pirate leader and question the pirate named Martino.

"Pirate leader, didn't you say we were safe here after paying money? Why is the war almost spreading here?!"

Martino was somewhat embarrassed by the caravan leader's questioning. After all, a bandit den had been raided right on their doorstep. How could they still collect protection money with a clear conscience? But they couldn't just push the protection money they had collected onto them—that would be too shameful for pirates.

“This is all part of the plan… Yes, we’re going to let them in and catch them all in one fell swoop! Don’t worry!” Martino’s mind raced, and he finally found this reasonable explanation.

The caravan leader looked at him with suspicion and sighed, "I hope you're telling the truth. We've given you our goods, and this trip has been a waste. Now we just want to get out of here quickly and find medicine for my man! He only fainted at first, but now he's starting to shiver!"

Martino glanced at the man lying in the corner of the tavern, who was wrapped tightly in a sheet and protected almost completely by the other members of the caravan, his body trembling as if he were getting cold.

Pirate Martino's eyes darted around, and he whispered, "Old boss, we've known each other for quite a while. Although this is a business deal, I still can't bear to let you go empty-handed. You..."

He made a gesture that everyone understood from a hidden spot, "You should still have money on you, right?"

The caravan leader, like an old cat whose tail had been stepped on, said, "What do you mean? I've already paid three times the toll, and you still want more benefits?"

Martino shook his head and said softly, "Don't rush... We've got a lot of fresh produce this time, both men's and women's. Aren't you going to buy some to take home?"

The caravan leader finally smiled. "Oh...that's good news! When can we see the goods? And where did this batch of fresh goods come from?"

Martino lowered his voice and said, "Several major battles have been fought on the grasslands this year, and many tribes have been captured. The victorious tribes also need to replenish their supplies, so we took the opportunity to make a big deal and bought more than a hundred..."

Upon hearing this, the caravan leader said with some disappointment, "The tribes... even if we buy those barbarians, they can only do manual labor. We'll have to train them intensively before they can do complex work. It doesn't seem like a good deal..."

Martino feigned displeasure and said, "If you're not interested, then forget it! If the cargo ship hadn't been docked here for repairs, and if we didn't want to sell to the loader's crew, you wouldn't even have a chance to choose!"

The caravan leader then smiled slyly: "I'll buy it if you give me a discount."

"10% off".

"I'll be the one to choose, and I'll give the same price for both men and women. No arbitrarily raising the price!"

"Tch...Deal!"

"There's no time like the present, is now a convenient time to see it?" the caravan leader said with a grin.

Martino said, "Once we've wiped out these invaders, you can choose any prisoners we capture. I'll check if the fighting outside is over first. I don't believe these guys won't scatter and retreat after being bombarded with grenades..."

As he spoke, he opened the tavern's tightly closed door and peeked out, intending to instruct the pirates guarding the entrance to quickly resolve the battle at the front and capture as many prisoners alive as possible.

But as soon as the door opened, thick black smoke billowed in, obscuring the land at Sabre Bay harbor.

Through the choking smoke, the distant red sun, about to sink into the sea, looked dim like a lit cigarette butt, barely indicating the direction of the sunset.

The pirates who had been guarding the entrance were now a jumbled mess of corpses. In the distance, shadowy figures, like ghosts, appeared and disappeared. People dressed in tattered, battle-damaged clothes and wearing silver-white armor riddled with explosion marks nimbly burst out of the smoke and fired at the pirates who were still fighting back.

These attackers actually rushed out!

…………

Eaton, who was charging ahead, was thrown into the air by the shockwave and slammed heavily into a wall. A piece of shrapnel grazed his arm, but fortunately, it didn't hit an artery. The collapsing wall created a triangular space, preventing further blast damage.

When he finally managed to escape the ruins, he discovered that the damage was far greater than he had imagined. The squad leaders in charge of the front lines, who had been the first to engage in combat, were hit hardest by the grenade blasts, and many of them died silently, becoming corpses.

The deep crater at the epicenter of the explosion testified to the crisis that had just occurred, but Eaton seemed to have lost all thought. After spitting out a mouthful of blood, he got up from the ground and decisively continued his charge, plunging headlong into the choking black smoke...

A commander's actions speak louder than words.

Even the bald man gave up on talking. He saw two dumbfounded pirates hiding nearby in the explosion, and sure enough, he shot at their dazed faces, but because his marksmanship was too poor, he only managed to hit nothing.

As the saying goes, fate brings its own set of enemies. Another pirate turned to run, but his gait was extremely strange, as if he had a leg injury. As a result, he was shot in the left shoulder blade of his back. He leaned against a wall, raising his right hand to try to keep himself from falling. He remained in that position and did not move again.

The pirates nearby seemed to want to take this pirate away, shouting, "Boss, what are you doing, boss! Don't stop!"

Then the soldier next to the bald man blew his head off.

Are you all alright?

After eliminating the threat, the bald man began searching the battlefield for survivors. Whenever he found someone alive, he would silently pat them on the shoulder before moving on to the next person.

Every soldier who was awakened rose like a robot, expressionless, and continued the unfinished charge. Their minds were blank; only the burning desire to charge towards the port's spaceship remained!

And so, a group of ghostly warriors, with their indifferent emotions, were the first to overcome their instinctive fear of war. Not only did they clear out the enemy from the battlefield, but they even charged towards the position through the black mist, like ghosts appearing in ominous clouds.

No one would believe that the Reverse Lightning Legion could have done this, simply because their minds were so easily swayed by pyramid scheme tactics that they were reduced to a single, unthinking person...

Even if some pirates didn't believe in the danger, they were probably intimidated by this terrifying fighting spirit. There were only sporadic gunshots along the entire battle line, and they easily tore open the third line of defense!

The collapse of their original plan and defenses dealt a severe blow to the pirates' morale. The fleeing pirates gradually abandoned their positions and began to burrow into the corners of Sabre Bay, trembling with fear and afraid to peek out.

As the remaining squads launched a haphazard and unpredictable assault, Eaton's ultimate strategic objective was now completely exposed to him.

His mind was completely focused on two words...

Boarding!

Chapter 463 The Darkest Hour

A sturdy breakwater stands on the edge of the sea, enduring the relentless pounding of the waves day after day. Darkness has surged forth from the horizon, staining the sky like ink, with only a sliver of light remaining at the edge of the sea.

But everyone in the bay knew that the darkest moment of the longest day was about to begin.

Eaton came with a death wish, prepared to wipe out everyone here to seize the spaceship, but the scene before him shocked him so much that he could not move forward.

On the port's inbound channel, a strange, enormous, and menacing spaceship lay quietly at rest, like a steel behemoth slumbering in black water.

The harbor basin was built to the standard size of a normal ship on the planet, so much so that this huge spaceship could not even enter the anchorage harbor basin. It could only use the stern to get close to the dock unloading area and use the extended planks to build a passage, leaving the empty belly hatch open.

The spaceship's alloy hull was covered in scratches, and its thrusters bore the marks of smoke and mechanical impacts. One side looked as if it had been dragged across the ground, riddled with dense scratches and damage. From the portholes and hatches, the lights were dim, and the spaceship seemed lifeless, floating on dark, wave-like water.

As a result, the originally intense scene suddenly became rather subdued.

Under Eaton's command, the remaining members of the Reverse Lightning Legion had firmly occupied the area after the bloody battle and cleared out all suspicious pirates from the port.

The supervising officers were using this brief moment to cut open the scab that had formed on Eaton's shoulder with a dagger and help him remove the shrapnel embedded in his flesh.

Although the enemy was in disarray, they had not captured any commanders or similar figures. Since their organization was not completely broken up, they could easily launch a counterattack.

"Commander, report! There appear to be some remaining pirates gathered in the tavern. Should we force our way in and clear them out?"

A combat supervisor covered in gunpowder marks ran over from a distance to report.

Eaton seemed oblivious to the pain in his body. After a moment of deep thought, he said, "Let's cease fire. Leave one team to hold the line, and the rest of us will retreat to the port. If the remaining soldiers inside were capable, they would have already broken out. There's no need for us to waste our energy attacking..."

The supervising officer nodded, his expression blank as he returned to the side. Eaton pulled out ammunition from his clothes and tossed it into his arms. "Take this ammunition supply. You'll lead the team onto the ship later to find out what's going on inside! I initially hoped to conserve ammunition for capturing the ship, but we all ended up stuck in the supply depot, what a pity..."

Due to the fierce fighting, the squad leaders were killed in the explosions, so Eaton had to lead the charge as the overseer, also serving as the rank-and-file commander and overseeing the overall situation. Now, most of these elite veterans were also wounded, but they still needed to lead the charge.

He now has two choices.

The first priority is to defend against the pirates' counterattack and any further attacks from the enemy that just attacked the rear of the formation, holding the position until reinforcements arrive. However, this requires a large amount of manpower and resources to organize the defensive line and rebuild fortifications.