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

When I looked up, I saw that Harris's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and his hands were clenched into fists as if he was about to transform into a politically correct version of a Super Saiyan, so I quickly added.

"Hey, hey, don't be angry. My way of putting it is much more polite than Old Man Hook's, isn't it?"

I rolled my eyes. "How about I give you back your position as sheriff? ...I can't give you anything else even if I wanted to...Do you know what the most frequent thing I hear as sheriff is?"

Harris asked through gritted teeth, "...What is it?"

"Ah Zu, stop now, there are Jackie Chans everywhere outside."

Harris took a deep breath and finally suppressed her anger. "Who's talking about me? I'm saying it's time for you to settle down and start a family!"

"what?"

This time I was stunned. Did he actually predict my prediction?

“You’re not young anymore, about the same age I was when I arrived in Mineral Town. I just don’t want you to follow in my footsteps. Besides, I’m only ten years older than Anzo, while Dick is twenty years older than me. Stop talking nonsense!”

I said nonchalantly, "A rogue doesn't care about age, and ambition knows no age. It's perfectly normal for someone like Yin Liting to turn his love rival into his father-in-law. You should keep your heart in your pocket!"

Seeing that Harris was about to get angry again, I quickly gave a French military salute to show my respect. "Alright, alright, let's talk about my business first. I'm still young, I should at least sort out the ranch's business before thinking about these things, right?"

Harris sighed and said, "You're not like me. I'm just afraid that if you keep dragging this out, you'll get torn to pieces..."

"Huh? I've made many friends in town, treated people kindly, and been generous with my money. How could I have been murdered? Fast forward to episode 50 of Leo?"

That's not what I meant...

"So what do you mean? Are you just trying to say something, or do you mean nothing at all? You're really shameless... This is getting boring!"

Harris was successfully confused by me.

"By the way, Harris, Gotz and I found something strange in the mine. He said you might have seen it before."

After chatting for a while, I took out the metal rod-like object that the unidentified deceased had been holding and handed it to Harris. "Do you know what this is for?"

Harris took the thing from my hand with a stiff expression, examined it carefully, remained silent for a moment, and then placed it on the tea table. Then, incredibly, he pulled something else from his pocket and placed it on the table…

The two items are exactly the same!

I exclaimed in astonishment, "You...you did a really good magic trick! Could you teach me?"

Harris's stern face almost crumbled as he tried to remain serious, saying, "This is a terminal signal summoner! It can emit a specific frequency signal to attract the attention of the corresponding terminal and pinpoint its location. For example, although I have left the fleet, I am still a member of the fleet, so as long as I press this, someone will come to pick me up."

“Terminal signal…” I frowned. “Can you figure out what this thing is for? And what exactly is this Donald Morden trying to do?”

Harris's expression turned very strange. "Well... if you're looking for information on Donald Morden's thoughts, I can actually introduce you to him..."

This conversation sounds like an assassination declaration.

I jumped three steps away: "What do you think you're doing? In broad daylight, under the clear sky, you're not going to attack the sheriff, are you?!"

Harris remained seated, his expression unchanged, but his demeanor grew even stranger. "Well... I can not only introduce you to him, but I can also reveal his schedule for the next month to you."

Harris recounted the details with great familiarity, "Next week he planned to capture a striker, the following week he said he was going to hunt a Leviathan whale, and the week after that he claimed he wanted to have a hand-to-hand fight with a grizzly bear. Fortunately, he had his leg broken a couple of days ago, so he had to abandon all those plans and instead spend his time online collecting evidence of the existence of Martians..."

"...Is this person you're talking about a little mentally unstable?" I said, speechless.

"Watch your language and stop your defamatory behavior!"

"The slanderous words were clearly spoken by you!"

"Then... then please stop leaking military secrets!"

"...Are you serious?"

Harris smiled wryly: "The mentally unstable person I'm talking about is not only alive and well, but is also the founder of the Deep Space Fleet and its current commander—General Donald Morden!"

Chapter 553 Morden—The Death of a Family

The air suddenly fell silent. Harris and I stared at each other without saying a word. The surrounding environment was so clear that you could hear a pin drop...

Oh, sorry, I exaggerated. Thomas's snoring was so loud that theoretically you shouldn't be able to hear a pin drop.

The reason I used the word "theory" is because I haven't actually tested it by dropping a needle on the ground—I wouldn't dare bend down to pick up a needle from a suspicious spot where two old bachelors are inexplicably living together.

"Would General Morden...?"

I pondered for a long time, but did not proceed with the next step of reasoning.

Harris saw my apprehension and smiled, saying, "You're definitely overthinking it. Although the signal summoner is engraved with the general's name, the deceased could not possibly be him."

He put away his terminal signal summoner, crossed his arms, and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the general should be pursuing the main force of the space pirates to another sector. Because there are suspected signs of pirate infiltration on a planet, diplomatic negotiations are still underway… The people there are quite stubborn; I wonder what the outcome is…"

I remembered the captured pirates of the Hiron Mercenary Group. "What happened to those skinny weirdos? What was their fate?"

Harris said, "Space pirates are a persistent problem in the universe. The Deep Space Fleet has gradually developed a complete set of methods for dealing with them through its confrontation with them. Based on the danger level of these people, they should be imprisoned in the Black Gate prison deep in space."

"Black Gate Prison?"

Judging from the name, I feel like there's someone crazy or a pervert involved. I hope there won't be any problems.

But I don't really care about what happens to these people. If I can defeat them once, I can defeat them twice. What I'm more concerned about is the mysterious deep-space fleet he mentioned.

Since Harris is here, I can finally ask him about the questions I've been curious about on the spaceship for a long time.

"Harris, what is the Deep Space Fleet? Could you tell me about it?" I asked.

Harris looked at me in surprise, "You don't even know about this fleet!"

I said nonchalantly, "Come on, there are so many people on the Grand Line, who would know if there wasn't someone with a white beard and red hair... Tell me, tell me!"

Harris said helplessly, "I'm really exasperated by you. You can make your ignorance sound so righteous... The history of the Federation involved here is very complicated, so I'll just give a brief overview..."

It turned out that the history he described was indeed very complicated. I listened carefully for two hours before I could roughly grasp what I wanted from the context he described.

At times like this, I really need that historical manuscript Father Carter had... I wonder if he took it with him; I'd love to study it properly...

It is an indisputable fact that the Deep Space Fleet originated from Earth. Even though they have added countless ships and expanded their ranks by a massive number of soldiers in space, their core members are from Earth and have never forgotten their mission to take revenge on the Earth Federation government.

The soul of this fleet, General Donald Morden, was originally a lieutenant general in the federal government army, so the title of general was well-deserved.

During his time in government, Morden Neng was a righteous, resilient, compassionate, and efficient regular army officer, highly respected within the military. He was also a loving father who hoped his son would inherit his courage and wisdom and continue to fight for justice.

Unfortunately, due to a miscalculation by the regular army's intelligence department, Modern's wife and son were killed in a Central Park bombing.

The bombing was triggered by the resistance that swept across the entire continent at the time.

Decades ago, increasingly severe oppression and exploitation made the federal government increasingly unpopular, and the trust groups that benefited from the government were even more bloody in their exploitation. Many people who had no other choice began to take radical measures to resist, which eventually led to the tragedy.

After the tragedy, General Donald Morden volunteered to take on the task of suppressing the uprising forces. The federal government leadership trusted this man who carried a deep-seated hatred for the enemy and immediately agreed to let him take office, hoping that he could stabilize the situation.

Upon taking office, Morden launched a fierce offensive, wiping out the armed forces in the insurgent areas and seemingly about to completely annihilate them.

But at this time, perhaps due to the emotional blow of losing his wife and son, and the extremely stressful frontline environment, Morden's mind gradually became confused, his personality changed, and he began to become insane.

This man, who was considered the least likely to betray the army and the least likely to let go of his hatred, one day led his men to defect from the regular army and become an enemy force of the regular army, calling himself "General Morden".

Before General Morden's defection, there were already many rebel forces operating in various places, but these rebel forces were suppressed because of Lieutenant General Morden's presence at the time.

However, after Morden's defection, he surprisingly chose to join forces with these rebels to fight against the regular army. Even in his madness, this man's outstanding military talent played a significant role in revitalizing the disorganized rebel forces. As the rebel numbers continued to grow, Morden's army became invincible, gradually pushing the local regular army to the brink of defeat and forcing them to the negotiating table…

However, this situation ultimately could not be maintained.

Amid internal and external troubles, the federal government began to change its political stance, cut tax burdens, and vigorously reorganized the parliamentary groups controlled by trusts. It also passed the Equal Rights Act, which separated economic power from administrative functions, and won back some of the support of the middle class.

Of course, this top-down reform, which is essentially just a change in name only, cannot address the fundamental issues. However, the trust group is not a completely incompetent vampire. As an organization that defeated the Papal Inquisition Legion a century ago, its formidable economic strength is matched by a terrifying level of technological research and development capabilities.

Driven to desperation, the conglomerates developed the SV-001 prototype armored vehicle to exploit the weakness of the regular army's limited forces. With its agile mobility, powerful firepower, and impenetrable armor, it quickly broke through the enemy's army groups and achieved great results as soon as it was deployed on the battlefield.

During this process, General Morden also keenly sensed the problem and launched a strong attack to destroy the factory that produced the SV-001 tank, seizing several finished vehicles and design blueprints from the tank laboratory.

Even though the insurgents established their own laboratory, developed the SV-001 tank and its improved versions, and put them into production later, they could never match the powerful logistical mobilization capabilities of the federal government, and ultimately fell into turmoil.

As the war faltered, countless rebels built numerous bunkers of all sizes, stubbornly resisting the government army's overwhelming force. Relying on the terrain and risking their precious lives, they waged a futile resistance.

Colonel Allen, General Morden's most loyal comrade-in-arms, personally operated the turrets in this battle, holding the main battlefield of the tank attack for three days and three nights. He was eventually surrounded and killed after running out of ammunition and supplies.

This steel-like warrior died shirtless, the intense heat from the continuous artillery fire turning his skin a crab-red color. All the hair on his head and body was burned off, yet he never retreated a single step.

Facing defeat, General Morden gazed at the starry sky, lost in thought—war brings only destruction, but who can end this conflict?

Countless fierce battles were fought, but the enemy was eventually breached and reached the outskirts of the main base. When the government forces surrounded the last fortress, waiting for the enemy to surrender, they discovered that Morden, relying on his personal charisma, had managed to turn part of the federal government's deep space fleet against them. The enemy descended from the sky, took away the elite forces of the main base, and disappeared into space.

Besides the countless killings that war breeds, it also gives rise to many irreconcilable hatreds and a wave of reflection that sweeps across the entire continent.

The people in the rebellion-stricken areas suffered brutal reprisals afterward, with countless people imprisoned, killed, or even disappeared forever from the annals of history. However, the impact of the war did not disappear with the reckoning.

In the years that followed, the fear of war became deeply ingrained, and the federal government entered a decade-long period of recession due to war bonds. It was during this time that small islands overseas flourished, and the huge demand for industrial raw materials for resuming production led to the prosperity of towns like Mining Town.

In fact, the original inhabitants of these towns were, without exception, participants or sympathizers of the uprising who migrated to the open sea to avoid trouble. For example, the miners who founded the mining town were all oppressed classes who were sworn enemies of the trust group.

On the other hand, according to Harris, after General Morden's fleet entered space, they first found an abandoned space base in a crater on the far side of the moon, where they acquired relatively advanced space travel technology. Later, as if blessed with protagonist's halo, they picked up leftover technology everywhere, making up for their shortcomings in scientific research capabilities.

After coming into contact with the Star Covenant Council, they gained official employment from the Star Covenant due to their fierce and skilled combat abilities, and formed the current Deep Space Fleet.

Compared to space pirates, the Deep Space Fleet is actually just a hired thug, but belonging to the lawful faction, ordered to eliminate the masterminds behind the seizure of the planet Altana energy and their attempts to manipulate the planet's power.

But from this point on, Morden completely changed his personality. For him, the justice of the past was perhaps just hypocritical words, and absolute power was the true "justice".

"After that old man got to space, his mind went even crazier. He would do whatever he wanted every day, and no one could stop him. His biggest regret was that he couldn't save the rebels who followed him back then. Therefore, he repeatedly disregarded the Star Alliance's ban and blocked the outer space boundary of Earth in order to get justice."

I thought for a moment and said, "Then do you think the mysterious dead bodies in the mine could be remnants of the uprising army from back then, who hid here after being besieged and killed, and were forced to enter the cryogenic chamber due to injuries?"

This kind of artificial popsicle making is quite reasonable, but I really can't figure out why anyone would hide in this godforsaken place.

Harris nodded with a straight face: "That's what I guessed too. To be able to get a signal summoner engraved with General Morden's name, he must have a close relationship with the old man..."

He stood up. “I’ll take charge of this matter. I’ve already contacted the Deep Space Fleet. The drones will be here soon to pick me up and the body. If it really is the remains of the rebels from back then, it would be good for the old man to see it.”

I agreed, “Indeed. The origin of this body is unknown, and I don’t intend to let the people in town know too much. It would be best if we could find out his identity from you and thus unravel the mystery.”

Harris nodded, but paced around the room, saying hesitantly, "Now that you've gotten involved in these matters... it seems like I can entrust the rest to you..."

I nodded and asked, "Is there anything else you're hiding from me?"

Harris touched his red nose and sat down in front of me again. "It's nothing... How much do you know about the original founders of Mineral Town?"

I thought it was something serious.

Old Man Hook had told them about their identities before, but Harris was the one who was kept in the dark. After all, I know that Old Man Hook and Old Man Yorkson, who are already dead in his memory, are on a long interstellar journey as an elderly group and living a very comfortable life.

"Even with my connections in the police system, I could only find some vague evidence regarding the identities of the founders from back then... I'll be returning to the Deep Space Fleet in a couple of days, and I don't know when I'll be back, so I hope you can help me continue the investigation." Harris's eyes were very serious.

I suddenly felt a sense of doubt.

The original founders seemed very familiar with each other, but each of them had secrets. Old Man Hook, as an autistic teenager, actually knew very little. Could there be some secrets involved?